An Australian Bush Christmas

A shortened form of this article first appeared in the Fourth Chalet Annual, published for Christmas 1999.

Chapter 1 - A Problem for Madge
"Jem Russell, really! Next you'll be telling me I have reached my declining years. Why, I've hardly any grey hair to my name!" Madge glared at her husband indignantly. Years ago, before the war, as Madge Bettany, she had started the Chalet School in the Austrian Tirol with her young sister, Jo, as first pupil. Some years later Madge had married Dr James Russell, founder of a nearby large Sanatorium for tuberculosis patients. The Russells, now Sir James and Lady Russell, were in Australia, with some of their children, in connection with medical conferences.

"Now look, Madge, no need to get into a pelter. You know perfectly well it was a nasty attack of the 'flu and you're still inclined to get weak far too easily. All I said was you are no longer a spring chicken. I'd expect Joey to fly off the handle at any mention of the realities of ageing, but I always thought you were more sensible."

"But to be separated from the twins and the girls - for Christmas! -" wailed Madge, passing over the slur on her much younger sister's character in the interests of the point in question. "You are proposing that you and I go by ourselves and spend Christmas with friends of Con Stewart's - oh all right, Con Mackenzie's then, but I knew her for years as Con Stewart when she was teaching at the Chalet School before she married Jock. But really, dear, this other invitation from the parents of Kevin's and Kester's school friend sounds wonderful - Christmas for the whole family on the far North coast of New South Wales. You thought they were such splendid people when you met them that time and the girls and the twins are looking forward to it so much. What's to stop me recuperating on the coast, if recuperate I must?"

"The humidity for one thing. The Australian summer over Christmas gets very hot and the far north coast of New South Wales is virtually sub-tropical. You would find that sort of humidity, added to the intense heat, more than simply taxing - it could be dangerous to your health when you're not used to it - especially when you're not far removed from a convalescent state."

"But Jem, think of all the cool sea breezes we would get," objected his wife. "I understand this holiday home of theirs is right on the beach - not actually in Mullumbimby which, according to the map, is a few miles inland."

"I'm quite sure that in your case any benefit from sea breezes will be offset by the dreadful humidity and high temperatures up there. It's much hotter than here in Sydney, you know. And of course, if we go to the Hendersons, the kids could still go to the Suttons. I don't want to deprive them of such a once in a lifetime opportunity as a north coast Christmas. As you say, I know how much they were looking forward to spending Christmas on the coast with young Bruce Sutton and his brother."

"Well (with a sigh) - very well then - I think I see your point. It seems quite providential we had two invitations for Christmas, but would the Suttons mind having Josette, Sybil and the boys and not us? This is all so sudden - I'm having trouble thinking straight," said Madge slowly. "For that matter what about the Hendersons - us and no family?"

"I can put through a trunk call to Bill Sutton through the Mullumbimby exchange and explain the situation to him. I'll see if he's agreeable to having the kids without us - the girls are certainly old enough to look after the twins. He seemed an understanding, reasonable type of chap. Then it's simply a matter of getting another trunk line to Claud and Eva Henderson. The New England Tablelands where they live are known to be often a lot cooler than both Sydney and Mullumbimby - and with hardly any humidity. For another thing - I think it would be good for both of us to have a change of air and the altitude is much higher there. I talked it over with Josette and Sybil this morning - oh yes, my dear," in answer to his wife's look of reproach, "I wasn't going to broach such a proposal to you without first discussing it with the girls. Anyway, they are in full agreement. They were very much taken with Bill's wife, Judith, you remember, and will enjoy being with her as well as the rest. They agree that your health is more important. Besides, it is only for a week or so, and we can all have a pre-Christmas dinner and open the main family presents together here in Sydney beforehand. But we can send our own presents for the kids with them up the coast - and of course take some with us to the Hendersons'."

Thus it was that some days later Madge and Jem Russell found themselves gazing out of the carriage windows at the shifting scenes of the rural Australian landscape as their train travelled deeper into north - west New South Wales.

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Chapter 2 - Arrival
"Look, Jem. What a pretty station. Look at all those hanging baskets of flowers and those beds of flowering shrubs at the end of the platform." They were carrying their suitcases along the platform of the little country station.

"Do come on, Madge. - Ah, this must be Claud Henderson," muttered Jem in an undertone as a tall, big built man with iron grey hair strode purposefully towards them.

"Gooday," he called as he drew within earshot. "You must be the Russells of course. I'm Henderson," he added shaking hands firmly with them. "Had a good trip? It's a long way from Sydney all the way up here. Let me take that big port, Madge," reaching down and effortlessly lifting the suitcase. The big man turned to look fully at Madge. "You said in your letter that you would like us to call you by your Christian names and that's fine by us as long as you reciprocate with Eva and me." Madge smiled and thanked him, liking the look of his very blue, straight gazing eyes and open, strong face with its firm jaw and wide, pleasantly shaped mouth.

In a few moments they were out in the brilliant sunlight of the station car park on the edge of the little country town. Overhead the sky was the deep, intense blue Australia turns on for summer, with a scattering of small, white cloud puffs. In the distance was a low line of heavily timbered, blue hills. The shrill sound of cicadas seemed designed to defeat all conversation.

"Here's the car," said Claud Henderson leading the way to a large Holden Station wagon parked in the shade of a thick bank of white flowered oleander bushes.

"Here you are, Madge. You hop in the front. I'll open the back, Jem, and we'll dump the luggage and get home. It's not far - just beyond the town proper - and then I'm sure you'll be ready for a cuppa."

The big Holden skirted the little sprawling country town, with its corrugated iron roofs gleaming silver in the early afternoon sunshine, and soon turned off the tarred road onto an earthen track enabling Madge and Jem to get a good look at the many gum trees, the famous native eucalypt tree of Australia.

"Pity it's too late in the year now for you to see the wattle up here. It's quite spectacular around August. In the thick bush then, everywhere you look there are splotches of gold - here we are, this is our turn-off."

As Claud was speaking he turned the steering wheel sharply and they entered a side track and, about two yards in, stopped at a wide steel gate barring the path. As Jem got out to wrestle with the gate, Henderson leaned out of the driver's window and called,

"Sorry, Jem, it's a bit skew whiff with the lean of the posts. You have to fight with it a bit - there that's it." Jem, having wrenched the ring off the hook, dragged the gate open and stood in the long dusty grass at the edge while Claud drove through. Jem managed to close the gate, got back in and, as the Holden drove on round a rather corrugated curve, the gum trees, lining the track rather untidily, gave way to a double row of tall Lombardy poplars marching along to meet the car.

"Oh what are those birds?" cried Madge in delight, as a flock of brilliantly coloured birds swept through the trees and crossed the road just in front of them.

"Crimson Rosellas, otherwise known as the Mountain Lowry," replied Claud.

"The colours! Bright crimson and such a deep blue. They are so beautiful," enthused Madge.

Through the ranks of poplars could be seen open paddocks of yellow-green dotted here and there with gums; weeping willows lined a hidden creek. The car slowed to a crawl.

"Have to go very circumspectly over this bit," explained Claud Henderson. "Rain has made it a nasty wash out in the gravel. Only wish we could get some good rain at the moment. It's getting a bit dry." Slowly, the car climbed up the other side of the dip and drove on, soon reaching the end of the poplars. Here they pulled up at a pretty, green painted picket fence, enclosing a garden, within which could be seen glimpses through shady trees of a long, low house.

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Chapter 3 - A Warm Welcome
"Here you are at last, and welcome to our home!" Eva Henderson came forward to greet her guests. "We've heard so much about you both, from Con Mackenzie, that it's such a pleasure to meet you! Come in onto the verandah. The sun's too hot to stand out here." Madge smiled at the speaker while noting with interest the very un-English appearance of Eva's brown skin, the product of the Australian outdoors. Her clear gazing green eyes held a friendly smile, and her short, thick, once dark, straight hair was parted on the side and streaked with grey. It was at first glance a plain face but with something better than beauty. 'Wholesomeness and warmth,' decided Madge, 'and it shows directness and common sense,' she mentally added, as she stepped up on to the wide, shady, wooden verandah. Eva Henderson was a woman with whom one could quickly relax and feel at home.

That lady was saying now, "While Claud is helping your husband bring in the suitcases I'll take you along to your room. You'll be able to meet the rest of the family shortly. Our daughter, Virginia, is setting the table for afternoon tea."

Eva led the way (accompanied by a large, brown dog who kept at her side after sniffing delicately at Madge) along the verandah, which ran the length of the single storey, cream painted, stone house. The several bedrooms with their French windows opened directly onto the verandah, which was a low step up from the garden. Above the flowers and extending the length of the house was a wire mesh trellis covered with a beautiful Chinese trumpet creeper.

"We call it bignonia," said Eva as Madge paused to admire the massed hanging flowers. "Here's your room, and you and your husband can have the next door bathroom to yourselves," she added as they reached the end of the long front verandah.

"This looks so comfortable!" Madge gave a happy sigh as she gazed with delighted eyes around the large, airy corner room. The double French windows were hung with soft, white folds of mosquito netting between the heavy curtains. The high brass bed was covered with a white crocheted bedspread and a marble topped washstand with a mirror sitting on top acted as dressing table with beautiful white linen and lace covers. A couple of comfortable chairs, a commodious chest of deep drawers in Australian red cedar and a very large wardrobe of the same wood with full length mirror completed the furnishings.

 "Now, I can hear the men with the luggage so I'll leave you to settle in and afternoon tea will be ready when you are." She smiled warmly at Madge and went out of the side door into the little hall as Claud and Jem brought in the luggage.

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Chapter 4 - Surprises at Afternoon Tea
Half an hour later, Madge and Jem found themselves shaking hands with a tall young man who appeared to be around twenty or twenty one. Claud introduced him as his son, Keith, who had just finished his training in Manual Arts (which, Claud explained, is the Australian name for woodwork and metalwork teaching) and was waiting for his first appointment as a qualified high school teacher. Keith had the same thick, dark hair as his mother. His green eyes had a very steady gaze when they rested on Madge and Jem, and his handshake was even firmer than his father's was.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm sorry not to have been with Dad at the station but a branch fell on one of the strands of the fence and had to be fixed right away so cattle can't walk through the gap and get stolen." His rather serious looking face lit up as he smiled.

"And over here by the table," said Claud affectionately, "and waiting very patiently to be introduced, is our daughter, Virginia." Madge and Jem turned to greet a very fair, very slim, pigtailed girl of around thirteen who shook hands. There was a shy smile in the large blue eyes, which were so like her father's. Madge opened her mouth to speak to Virginia, but her words remained unsaid for at that moment there was a quite unexpected diversion. Two black streaks suddenly tore through the lounge room one behind the other, in one door and out the other.

"Those loony cats!" exclaimed Claud. The hindmost black cat skidded on a small mat in the middle of the polished cedar floor-boards. The mat suddenly undulated violently to one side, finishing up like a squashed wave against a small ornamental table, while the cat scrabbled madly to get back on course and then tore out of the door in the wake of the first. Distant sounds of the thunder of paws tearing along the verandah outside quickly receded. The large brown dog of the verandah, who had been tightly curled up, sound asleep in a small space between a sofa and chair, lifted its head and gazed around with a bemused expression, trying to discover the cause of such a rude awakening. Deciding it wasn't worth worrying about, it yawned cavernously, picked itself up off the floor, circled twice, and flopped itself down to have a nice scratch before resuming its interrupted slumbers.

Everyone stood somewhat stunned with just their heads following the mad progression of the cats, and then Eva suddenly came to life and looked rather apprehensively at Madge to see how Lady Russell would take such an undignified feline matinee performance. She was vastly relieved when she saw Madge break into soft laughter and at the same time heard from behind her a crack of laughter from Jem. The rather strained silence was broken and everybody roared. Virginia dashed across the room to straighten the mat and to pat the now snoring brown dog. Coming back to the table, she punctuated the afternoon tea which followed with subdued giggles.

"Well! So much for the stately afternoon tea, Mum," said Keith, with a grin at his mother.

"I do hope you will excuse Zebedee and Jiminy Cricket, Madge and Jem," said Eva, ignoring Keith, as she gestured for them to sit round the table and started to pour the tea while Virginia passed the food. "They do tend to go mad and chase each other over the house at times. Another thing," (as she handed a cup to Madge) "I hope you don't mind having a dog inside the house?"

"Please don't apologise, my dear," Madge cut in, taking the cup and saucer with a word of thanks. "We are used to animals. We never seem to have collected cats along the way -"

"Just as well with all our removals," murmured Jem.

"- But my sister, Joey, has a very large St Bernard, Bruno, and we are all used to his boisterous welcomes inside the house."

While they ate the feather light scones, sponge cake and pikelets with tomato jam, all made by Eva and Virginia and served with whipped cream, Jem and the other men chatted about dogs in general and Bruno and his predecessor, Rufus, in particular. Madge at last had time to look around the dining-lounge room in which they sat. It was a very big room, much longer than its width, with beautiful old furniture, large windows and a huge, stone open fire place. The tall pine walls were hung with several landscapes in oil and two large framed tapestries. Christmas cards stood in groups on all available surfaces giving a festive air.

"Now, Madge," said Eva with a smile, after everyone appeared to have finished. "We don't want to tire you out since you haven't been well. I was wondering if you would like to have a rest in your room for a while? Dinner won't be until seven o'clock so you could have a nap if you would like to. You must be tired after that twelve hour train trip up from Sydney."

Jem looked quickly over at his wife. "I think you should, Madge," he said as she hesitated. "We came up here for a rest and we don't want you getting exhausted, so off you go - and mind you get a proper sleep."

"Well, there wasn't a lot of sleep to be had on the train so I am rather weary," agreed Madge.

"And afterwards, we'll take you for a walk and show you the rest of the place," said Claud. "What's more, perhaps Jem would like to rest as well."

 A short time later both the guests were sleeping peacefully in their cool bedroom with a light breeze gently stirring the folds of the mosquito nets and an hour or so later they woke up, much refreshed after their nap, and a quick shower and change of clothes.

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Chapter 5 - A Terrifying Encounter
"Ah, There you are. Did you have a good rest?" inquired Claud from the other end of the verandah as Madge and Jem emerged from their room.

"Oh yes," said Madge, sighing contentedly. "Such luxury. I feel so much better - and," (turning to her husband) "when, I might ask, did you last manage an afternoon sleep, Jem Russell?"

"Goodness only knows. I certainly can't remember," replied her husband with a little left over yawn as they came up to Claud who carefully placed a small, screw topped tin and soft rag on a low stool beside him. On a small table in front of him he placed a beautifully plaited leather stockwhip, then rose to meet his two guests.

"Keith made this a few years ago for my birthday," Keith's father explained with pride, "and it's ready for oiling again. Need it for helping the dogs with the cattle. There aren't many so Keith, myself and the two dogs do any rounding up ourselves on foot. I have to oil it regularly to keep the leather supple. I use this Scandinavian oil here, on the leather, and just need a soft rag."

"Now that's an occupation I've not seen before," Jem said.

"May I look closely?" asked Madge, and Claud picked up the stockwhip and gave it to her.

"Most certainly - it's not greasy. Here you are." Madge, with Jem closely watching, examined the beautiful workmanship with the intricate leather plaiting and binding.

"I usually keep it in the Holden so it's handy if I need it."

As Madge handed the whip back to its owner, expressing her admiration at the detailed craftsmanship, footsteps were heard in the little corridor linking the verandah to the rest of the house. Eva and Virginia appeared in order to suggest that it was time for a walk - to which there was unanimous agreement.

"Oh, how marvellous!" This was Madge's cry of delight as a large flock of pink and grey galahs swooped and tumbled, screeching through the garden and came to rest in a tree a few yards away. It was a beautiful late afternoon walk around the garden through the tall, thick foliaged ornamental trees around the house and further on, the native trees.

"Oh, look at the gorgeous colours of that bird!" exclaimed Madge pointing to a cotoneaster tree where a large king parrot sat, solemnly staring at them. Its colours were remarkable: tangerine and deep, grass green.

The Hendersons and the Russells were accompanied by the dog they had seen asleep in the lounge room, the same dog Madge had met on the verandah on her arrival - and on this occasion by another dog, with long chestnut coloured hair and a white front. Virginia produced a rather incoherent introduction

"This one is called Jess and Keith bought her from the pound when he found her up at the dump one day where the pound is - and this is Fred that was in the lounge room. Keith found him at the gate once when he was a puppy and he bought him and called him that." She paused for breath.

"Keith's never been a puppy to my knowledge," murmured Claud. "She means Fred was the puppy - I think!" with a grin at the giggling Virginia.

"The joys of perfect sentence construction," said Jem to Virginia with a chuckle.

"Oh yes!" she agreed fervently. "Dad and Keith always tease me for any little mix up I get - I think I'm very abused, actually." At which Madge smothered a laugh while Eva gave Virginia a playful smack on the bottom and said,

"My good child, if every daughter in Australia was as abused as you are by your family the country would be a wonderful place."

"I s'pose so," she agreed vaguely, her thoughts once more on the dogs. "Anyway Fred's a kelpie and Jess is a - um - cross - what d'you call her, Dad?"

"Cross with trespassers actually," he responded, then relented at a groan from his daughter and explained: "She's a cross between a collie and a kelpie, which is an Australian breed of sheep dog. - Ah, here comes Keith," as that young man strode quickly into view. "What's up? You're looking very serious."

"I've just seen a red-bellied black snake under the fence over there," Keith replied, pointing across an open part of the garden to a barbed wire fence beyond which could be seen a few cattle grazing. "As a matter of fact I nearly stepped on it," he quietly added. Madge gave a slight shudder.

"Crumpets! What did you do then?" inquired Virginia, standing delicately poised on first one foot then another, rather like a heron slowly marking time.

"Just got out of the way quick smart. Trouble is, Dad," Keith said turning to his father, "I'm not sure which way it went."

"Never mind, we'll be perfectly all right," Eva said reassuringly as she caught sight of Madge's rather pale face. "Fred will let us know if there's a snake anywhere around, won't you, Fred?" she added, bending down to stroke the satiny head of the big dog who gazed adoringly up at her with intelligent brown eyes. She straightened up and turned to Madge. "Whenever Fred smells a snake about, he goes into the pointer position and freezes with his nose pointing forwards at the scent and one paw raised."

"Yes," agreed Keith. "It's a dead give away when he does his snake act." Fred had moved round the back of the group of people as they spoke and suddenly from behind, Virginia said dryly,

"Like that you mean?" They all whirled round to see the girl pointing over to a low shrub of dark red flowered callistemon in front of which Fred was clearly 'doing his snake act'. At that point Jess, who wasn't the slightest bit interested in snakes but who was sniffing at a rabbit flavoured clump of grass, now lost interest and decided it was time to join forces with Fred. She lifted her head, ran over to Fred - who was of course deep in concentration on the fascinating and rather frightening snake smell. Jess uttered several shrill barks to gain his attention and the snake, who had been skulking in the cool shadows of the callistemon bush, took fright at the barking and shot out from under the bush in undulating coils of glistening black, then checked for a moment as it sighted the group.

Suddenly it reared up the top part of its long body revealing its red under-belly and flattening its head and neck, which swelled out (rather like the cobra to which it is related). For a few heart stopping moments the snake appeared frozen in that threat posture with head pointing straight towards the people, its unwinking eyes fixed on the group and the thin, black, flicking, forked tongue the only movement, until with lightning speed the black coils writhed across the grass and away, out of sight beneath some distant thick bushes. The dogs meanwhile had kept well back, near the people, with Virginia holding both their collars firmly.

Although all the action was several feet away, it was a fearsome sight, particularly so to Jem and Madge who had never seen any of the Australian snakes before. Madge could not wholly repress a small scream of terror as that evil-looking black creature flashed away and she grabbed at Jem with both hands as she quickly moved behind him. He responded instantly.

"Right. That's enough walk for you today, my girl. We'll get you straight back to the house and a strong cup of tea." Then remembering his manners, Jem turned to
Eva as he kept firm hold of his wife, who was now sheet white and trembling, and added: "If that would be all right with you, Eva."

"Of course! Here, take my arm, Madge. Jem's got your other arm. You've had a nasty shock. It won't take long to get to the kitchen. The house isn't really far away at all. We just wandered about in the trees a bit getting here."

"I'll go ahead and get the kettle going for you, Mum," and Virginia ran ahead with pigtails and long legs flying.

"I've seen a few snakes in my day so I'm more or less used to them but that one still looked very frightening. I don't wonder at you feeling wonky - especially since you haven't been well lately," Eva said gently. Madge thought she should be saying something in reply to all this but the fact of the matter was she was sure that as soon as she spoke her voice would shake. Worse, she - who long years ago, as Miss Bettany, was the dignified founder of the Chalet School! - would start to weep in front of Eva.

Claud and Keith had disappeared somewhere just after the snake removed itself, but shortly Keith was seen dashing up to the house from which he very soon emerged carrying a shotgun and quickly sprinted back the way he had come. In a few moments a distant shot was heard.

"Sounds like they've got him. That's a relief," observed Eva. They paused for a moment in the shade of a large peppercorn tree and Jem quietly released his grasp of his wife's arm and put his own arm round her rigid shoulders at the same time looking with concern at her still very pale face. Madge caught his gentle look and suddenly burst into tears uttering a strangled "Sorry!" in the direction of Eva and leant her head against her husband's shoulder. That lady murmured something about,

"I don't wonder. I'll go and see to the tea. Take your time," and hurried up to the house and around the corner out of sight.

Jem put both arms round his wife and held her while she sobbed into his chest. He stood there silently until some of the trembling eased and Madge raised her wet face and looked at her husband saying shakily, "I feel such a fool, Jem."

"Don't feel like that, dear. It's a natural shock reaction." He paused while she took out her handkerchief, wiped the tears and blew her nose, then said thoughtfully,
"Lately I've been thinking that, at times, we are wrong in expecting girls and women to quickly stop when they are crying. It's nature's release after all and shouldn't be bottled up." As Madge looked up into his face with surprise he added,

"Yes, I'm well aware there are times when school girls in particular could get what is commonly called hysterical, if they are allowed to continue crying uncontrollably. Then there is the tantrum howling when a kid gets into a complete paddy. That's easily fixed with a good smack." Jem thought for a moment while they strolled towards the house, now with his arm round Madge's shoulder, then continued,

"There are also occasions when some weeping is intended to force a certain reaction - from parents say, if a small child wants attention, or a woman wants to control her husband and decides she'll soften him up by a display of the weeps - Madge, you remember that time in Sydney a few months ago when we had that big conference at Camperdown Children's Hospital?" She nodded and he continued,

"Well this issue came up in the discussions at one point. People are starting to realise the 'stiff upper lip' attitude is not altogether a healthy one in general. Anyway, here we are so pop in to the bathroom and wash your face and I'll tell Eva you are ready for that cup of tea."

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Chapter 6 - Madge Recovers
Ten minutes later Madge and Jem were sitting down at the big table in Eva's spacious kitchen with its big dressers and peacefully ticking clock. There was a pleasant breeze coming through the screen door leading to the wide, back verandah where the dappled sunlight filtered through the thick leaves of a grape vine.

"Here's your tea, Madge and this is yours, Jem," said Eva. "That's better," she remarked presently, taking a sip of her own tea. "It's just on six o'clock now and I've checked the meat so we'll be right for dinner at seven as I said - now, Madge, I hope you are feeling better for that cup of tea?"

"Much better thank you," replied Madge who was now looking and feeling much more like her normal self.

The next moment boards creaked on the back verandah and Claud and Keith came in after carefully wiping their boots on the mat outside the kitchen door and waving away a ravenous horde of blow flies attracted by the delicious smell of roasting lamb coming from the large fuel stove

"Well - we got him," announced Claud, sitting down at the table and peering into the teapot.

"How d'you know he's not a her?" inquired Virginia, who had entered from the hall just after the men and perched herself on a high stool, twining her long legs round it. Keith playfully yanked one fair pigtail by way of answer, then carefully stood the shotgun on its timber butt behind the open wooden door. He straightened up and saw Madge and Jem watching this with looks of surprise.

"We need to have a shotgun handy at all times because of snakes - and foxes or dingoes after the chickens - oh, and the odd rabbit occasionally," Keith explained.
"Don't worry. It's never left loaded - it's also never carried loaded. It's only loaded when we're ready to fire - not before," he added dryly. "The shells are kept up on top of the dresser and Virginia knows very well never to touch either. She knows how important it is to have a shotgun handy, don't you, Jinny?"

"I'll say. Dad had to shoot a snake that came on the verandah when I was out there in my pram when I was a baby."

"You have a remarkable memory, young lady," remarked Jem with a twinkle.

Virginia giggled back at him then replied: "Daddy always says there is only one of me." This was said with a complacent air which produced a general laugh.

"I'm really sorry you had such an awful introduction to an Australian bush Christmas," said Claud to Jem and Madge. "But I can assure you that sort of hullabaloo is rare. Red-bellied black snakes for all their venomous poison are usually quite docile."

"As a matter of fact," said Madge, "now that the initial shock is over I'm rather sorry I didn't get a proper look at the snake. It all happened so fast and was so horrifying at the time that I'm left with just impressions of what it looked like - which are probably rather exaggerated."

"Interesting you should say that," remarked Claud, then paused as he drained the cup of tea he had poured himself. "When we came in we were going to tell you that after we shot the thing we brought it back with us in case you'd be interested in getting a good safe look at it. It's in a bag in the shed. "

"Well if you're going to do that, you'll just have time before you'll need to clean up for dinner," said Eva. "It won't be long now."

 "That would be a very good idea. To see the enemy close up and - er - vanquished would probably ensure there are no nightmares tonight," Jem said to his wife with a grin.

"Very probably - well, I'm ready and willing to be led to the foe - especially since he - or she" (with a smile at Virginia) "is unfit for further action," declared Madge with a laugh.

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Chapter 7 - Dinner table Conversation
"Lord, bless this food to our use and ourselves to Your service. In Jesus' Name, Amen." Claud finished saying grace, unfolded his serviette with a shake, spreading it over his lap, and looked round at everybody from his place at the head of the table with a twinkle in his blue eyes.

"While I carve this scrumptious looking leg of lamb, if you dish up the veggies, Eva, I would like Madge to tell you all how she liked her first close up view of the snake." He looked at Madge with a grin.

"And your only close up, we hope," added Virginia, smiling across at Madge who smiled back, nodding with emphasis, before turning to Claud.

"Good opening to gracious Australian dinner table conversation, you'll note - discussion of dead snakes!" interjected Keith before Madge could speak.

Amid the laughter that followed, Madge took her fragrant, steaming plate of meat and roast vegetables from Eva, helped herself from the platter of green vegetables Virginia was offering her, and said,

"I think, to answer Claud's question, what surprised me most about that snake is that when I managed to pluck up enough courage to touch it - after seeing everyone else touch it, I might add - it didn't feel at all slimy - its skin was quite silky in fact. It was very long when Keith held it up by the tail - almost six feet didn't you say, Keith?" He nodded and she went on: "And it was interesting seeing the horizontal formations of the red scales on its belly." She paused to ladle a spoonful of mint sauce onto her lamb, then added thoughtfully, "Sort of a palish crimson I would think. What would you say, Jem?"

"I would say if you don't hurry up and get some of that gravy the rest of us won't be responsible for the consequences!" Jem returned with dry emphasis. Madge laughed with the rest as she hastily took up the gravy boat and poured out a portion, then handed it on to her husband."

Some time later, when they were enjoying generous portions of meringue made by Virginia, topped with luscious lashings of whipped cream, custard and strawberries, Madge said to Claud,

"I notice that although you have fairly late summer sunsets in Australia, you do miss out on the long English twilights."

"That's right. The sun went down at about quarter past six and it's fully dark at - what is it now - seven thirty?"

Virginia turned to her father and said, "Dad, did you notice just before it went down the sun looked just like a fluorescent egg yoke?" At this remarkable simile everyone roared, while the author of it looked around the group with pained surprise.

"I must say I'd never have thought of that myself, but if I reeeeally stretch my imagination (with a twinkle at his daughter), I suppose you could say it sometimes does rather look like a fried egg yoke - now you come to mention it," conceded Claud.

"You forgot the fluorescent bit, Dad. Can't you just see it flashing like a neon sign at Lunar Park?" teased Keith.

"Oh Keith! You great galah!" protested his sister indignantly and inelegantly, as she jumped up from the table at the imminent risk of overturning her chair.

"Now that's enough, both of you," interposed Eva firmly. "Sit down, Virginia. You can't brawl with your brother at the dinner table. We can all see what you mean about the sunset." She directed a glance at her son who subsided with a grin and devoted himself to his dessert without further comment.

Meanwhile his sister skipped back to her chair and slid into it, not noticeably crushed, murmuring,

"Brawling with your brother at the dinner table - you could make a song out of that - 'brawling with your brother, brawling with' -" then broke off with a suppressed giggle as she encountered a look from her mother.

Later when Eva and Virginia had taken the dessert things out to the kitchen and brought back steaming cups of coffee, everyone relaxed round the table. The men pushed out their chairs and crossed their legs; from the sideboard Eva brought a small silver dish of dark chocolates to be enjoyed with the coffee. A gentle night breeze slightly stirred the heavy green curtains and from the garden came the chirping of crickets. Keith spooned sugar into his black coffee and stirred it thoughtfully.

"Speaking of snakes, which for once we weren't, I know," he began, with a grin at Madge and Jem, "you might be interested in this snake yarn a friend of ours told us. It's perfectly true although you might not think so."

"Tell away. It sounds most intriguing," replied Jem, helping himself to one of the chocolates Eva was offering him.

As Keith re-crossed his long legs and sat more at an angle to the table, the light flickered on his rather inscrutable eyes.

"I thought you'd like a change from black snakes. This is a brown snake story. You first must realise they are much more deadly than red-bellied black snakes. This friend of ours was telling us about a bloke he knew who, every time he leaned down off his horse to open one of the gates on his property, found his hat got knocked off. He'd look around - nothing there to do it, get back on his horse, close the gate without any problem and off he'd go. This happened time after time till one day he discovered what was causing it. This particular day the bloke happened to have a mate along and this mate, who was behind him at the gate, saw what was going on. The wooden gate post was hollow towards the top and every time the first bloke bent down near it, a brown snake who lived in the post lashed out to strike him. Just lucky for the bloke it got his hat and not him. Apparently the snake reckoned that it had got the bloke on the first hit each time, so it didn't bother to strike a second time when he closed the gate " Keith paused then added, "And that's a true story."

Jem gave a low whistle. "Yes, I see what you mean about it being rather incredible. Still if you can vouch for the story -" he paused and there was a little silence for a few moments after which Claud pushed his empty cup away and said firmly,

"Yes, these snake yarns are all very interesting, but we don't want our guests to have nightmares on their first night with us. Not very Christmassy it would be, either. So let's talk about what we are doing about Christmas seeing it's almost upon us."

"I am really looking forward to seeing how you celebrate Christmas in the Australian countryside," remarked Madge, to which Jem replied with a chuckle,

"You call it 'the Bush' out here, Madge."

"Tomorrow, being actually Christmas Eve," announced Claud, "is when we get the tree and put it up - and if you are very good, you ladies will be permitted to decorate it - I'm ignoring all those mutterings I hear."

"Are you bringing it home in the ute, Daddy? Can I come too?" interrupted his daughter, at which question Madge and Jem looked mystified.

"Yes we are and you can ride in the back with Keith," he answered her, then smiled at his guests adding, "In case you're wondering, a "ute" is a utility - a vehicle with a sedan front and a tray back."

"Like a car-sized truck," put in Keith with a grin.

"Oh, I see," laughed Madge.

"Lunch is to be a picnic down the creek," continued Claud, "and a swim for those who wish - stop bouncing up and down on your chair like that, Jinny. You'll do a mischief to its suspension - and then in the evening is the Combined Churches carol service in the park in town to which we are going and you would be very welcome if you'd like to come along, Madge and Jem. Of course it's just the Protestant Churches. The Catholics have their own Christmas service."

Madge glanced at her husband and seeing the agreement in his eyes, replied quietly, "Thank you. We would love to come with you."

"So that's tomorrow settled," said Eva getting up. "I think you two guests could do with an early night. No, Madge, you are definitely not going to help with washing up at this hour after the day you've had. You are going to bed and a good night's sleep and tomorrow you can help if you would like to. I have all these people to help me clear the dishes and wash up."

"This masterful lady is right, Madge," agreed Jem quickly, forestalling the protest he could see on his wife's lips. Then turning to the Hendersons he added, "This once I think we will give in without argument and help you all tomorrow. So we will say good night to you all and thank you for a marvellous meal and a memorable afternoon." Taking his wife firmly by the arm he propelled her gently out of the room as she quietly thanked their hosts. They slowly walked along the verandah, silent except for the peaceful night sounds from the garden.

"Really, Jem," Madge protested as they entered their room at the far corner of the long verandah, "You've hustled me out of the dining room with almost indecent haste. At least I could have helped stack the china to take to the kitchen."

"Just so, my dear," returned Jem as he pulled the curtains across the open French window behind them, "And you would have ended up helping with all the rest of the clearing up. Just now you look almost all in. You haven't quite reached the all eyes and white cheeks stage Joey produces, but you do have dark smudges under your eyes." Madge opened her mouth to retort but was forestalled by a huge yawn so she wisely subsided and meekly prepared for bed.

A little later as she lay in the dark listening to the comforting sound of frogs in the garden and a far away mopoke calling, she thought how peaceful it all was after the bustle and noise of Sydney and turning over, she snuggled down with a happy sigh just before sleep overtook her.

**********

Chapter 8 - Christmas Tree Preparations
Madge woke to find the bed dappled in soft sunshine filtering through the gum trees just beyond the side window. From these same trees off the little end verandah outside their room came the beautiful Australian morning sound of chortling Magpies. "So this is Christmas Eve in the Australian Bush," she mused drowsily. "A far cry from the bitterly cold Christmas Eves in the Tirol, England and Canada."

Over breakfast on the front verandah, Eva said, "It came over the air earlier this morning that storms are forecast today and a heat wave in Sydney for both today and tomorrow," she remarked. "I'm glad you aren't stuck in Sydney for Christmas. The wireless said they are expecting record temperatures down there."

"At the moment there's no wind so it should be safe to light a small fire to boil the billy at lunch time for this picnic of ours," said Claud, as he fed tidbits to Fred and Jess who were sitting up expectantly on either side of his chair. "I checked the barometer earlier and it's falling, but there's no sign of cloud anywhere at the moment but something could work up as the day goes on."

Eva glanced round the table to see if people had finished their breakfast. "Now about the Christmas tree," she said, "if you men want to get off quickly to collect it, Madge and I can clear up the breakfast things and pack the food for the picnic. I know Virginia wants to go with you and when you get back, we three can get on with the decorating while you men see to your end of things."

"Good idea," agreed Claud. "We'll set it up for you in a bucket of sand. I suppose you want it put in the bay window alcove again? - All right. We'll be off shortly. It's gone nine."

Sometime later Madge stepped back from the huge pine Christmas tree she and Eva had just finished decorating. "Oh - beautiful!" she exclaimed. "It reminds me of that magnificent Christmas tree Frau Mensch and her sister Luise decorated when Joey, the Robin and I stayed with them in Innsbruck before Jem and I were married." Zebedee, followed by Jiminy Cricket strolled in and delicately sniffed all round the base, then the two cats strolled nonchalantly out again.

The tree was a large branch of one of Claud's own trees he had earmarked for Christmas some weeks earlier and, while Madge and Eva had washed the breakfast things and loaded food into baskets for the picnic by the creek, the three men with Virginia dancing an excited attendance had gone out and sawed it down. They had loaded it on to the back of Keith's utility and Claud drove it back to the homestead with Jem in the cab beside him and Keith and Virginia perched on top of the very prickly foliage behind. Virginia had promptly come out in an itchy rash on her arms and legs which Jem treated back at the house with a patent lotion of his own, brought with him on his travels for such purposes as this.

While the men had organised the gear for the lunchtime picnic and had seen to preparations for the fire, the two ladies had decorated the tree with Virginia "supervising" operations at a safe distance from prickles and sap.

"I must tell you about that Christmas later on," continued Madge. "There have been many wonderful Christmases since then of course, but that one really made a lasting impression probably because it was one of the very first ones away from England and so very different and exciting. But I'm sure this Christmas even further away will be equally as good - and much warmer," she added with a laugh.

"Mummy, that star's crooked," announced Virginia, screwing up her eyes as she peered at the top of the tree from her vantage point on top of a dining chair.

"It'll have to stay crooked. I'm not climbing up that step ladder one more time. Keith can fix it when he comes in," stated Eva as she moved a tinsel streamer into a better position. "There now. I think that's all finished." She looked at her watch. "It's almost half past twelve. Let's see how far the men are ready for the picnic."

"Wahoo! What a humdinger!" cried Virginia racing for the door. She was stopped by her mother's indignant protest about her slang expression.
 

"Virginia Henderson! That isn't exactly a lady-like exclamation."

"Oops, sorry." Virginia whisked round the door and the two ladies laughed as they went to see what the men were up to.

**********

Chapter 9 - Storm Bird and Billy Tea
"Absolutely scrumbatious, Mum!" proclaimed Virginia as much as anything could be proclaimed when one has a mouth full of pink and white coconut ice. They were all spread out in various elegant or otherwise attitudes on blankets and cushions in the grateful shade of a huge, overhanging pepper tree near the bank of a little creek which ran through one of the far paddocks of the Hendersons' property. Because it was a very still day Claud had lit a couple of pleasantly scented mosquito coils whose gentle smoke was not likely to be blown away. Consequently the picnic lunch was not made hideous by ravenous blowflies or mosquitoes, although it was really too early in the day for the latter which usually make their appearance at dusk. The flies were further discouraged by a small fire Keith had lit over to one side, which was gradually burning down to coals ready for boiling the billy.

"I'm glad you approve, my dear Jinny," answered Eva dryly, "especially since it was you who made it just last week." Whereupon everyone laughed and Virginia protested that she was referring to the whole lunch not just her coconut ice.

A little silence fell as they all enjoyed the midday peace and the warm summery smell of grass and leaves. From a casuarina tree several yards away could be heard the monotonous coo-ee of a bird which Claud told them was the Koel, otherwise known as the storm bird.

"Does he really signal a storm, Claud?" Jem asked, raising himself on one elbow from his full length reclining position against a large plump cushion.

"The thing is, he's a migratory bird and his mating call just happens to coincide with our summer storm season, so folks call him the storm bird - or the rain bird," replied Claud, reaching for the chocolate truffles and passing them to Madge and Jem who protested their inability to eat another thing.

"I have had a generous helping of your wife's delicious cold meat pie with some salad, a piece of extremely delectable Christmas cake, three Anzac biscuits, two chocolate truffles, a small bunch of cherries and two large glasses of this magnificent pear juice of Eva's - with lemonade!" Madge paused for breath. As this gastronomic catalogue reached its climax everybody burst out laughing and Madge's husband fixed her with a severe eye.

"Anyway - it's Christmas. I don't normally eat such quantities. But I do know that my old nurse would have said that I'll have 'little green men dancing on my tummy' tonight," Madge answered, while another general laugh accompanied this amazing mental picture.

"Well, that fire looks as if it has burned down far enough now," Keith remarked, getting up and filling the billy-can with creek water while his father rolled two nearby granite stones into position at the edge of the fire. Keith came back with the water and broke a small but sturdy forked branch off the pepper tree above them. He suspended the wire loop of the billy handle from the fork in the end of the green branch, angled it over the fire and sandwiched the other end between the two stones at the side of the fire to hold it firmly in place.

"Well - I must say that's a lot simpler than the method we used in Guides!" exclaimed Madge.

"It's the genuine Australian forky stick method. Fast and simple and used by all the best swagmen," returned Keith with a grin. In a few minutes the water was boiling, since the coals put out a fierce heat. Keith opened a screw topped jar and threw a handful of tea leaves into the boiling water. After it had brewed he removed the stones and, holding the stick carefully, lifted the billy clear of the fire and took hold of the hot handle with a small clump of pepper tree leaves. Then, to the utter amazement of the carefully watching Madge and Jem, Keith stood up and swung the lidless billy-can several times in a huge arc, his arm acting like a windmill vane, with the centrifugal force keeping the tea inside. As he straightened up after putting the billy down beside the fire Keith caught sight of the look on the faces of the Russells. He couldn't help himself and just burst out laughing.

"I'm terribly sorry - but you both look so stunned," he explained rather shakily. "It's to settle the tea leaves at the bottom. Bushmen don't as a rule go in for such refinements as tea strainers in the Australian Outback." He grinned at them and turned back to the billy and positioned a group of cups near it, then still holding the wire handle by the leaves around it, used the stick to tilt the base of the billy and poured out the tea. He placed the billy on the ground, looked round the watching group with a slight smile and said,

"Ladies and gentlemen, afternoon tea is served," and proceeded to hand round the cups of fragrant tea. "Of course," Keith continued, "if this were a fair dinkum swagman's cuppa, you'd get your tea poured into enamel mugs with no milk and if you were lucky enough to be carrying sugar, you'd have to stir it with a stick. Then of course you wouldn't have such delicacies as home cooked food. You'd have just cooked your own damper in the coals."

After everyone had had sufficient, Keith carefully poured the remains of the tea from the billy on the fire, then took the billy down to the creek and coming back, poured a quantity of creek water on the dying fire.

"There! I defy even a gale to stir that to life now," he declared.

An hour or so later, a solitary kookaburra perched on a lofty gum tree branch above the creek laughed his staccato 'kook kook kook ka ka ka' at the sight below. Seated on the shady bank, their feet - minus stockings - dabbling in the clear water, were Madge and Eva engaged in a lively discussion of Australian beaches. In the water not far away were Jem and Claud who could only be described as wallowing, since they had abandoned all pretence of swimming some time ago and were now actually sitting on the (fortunately sandy) bottom of the shallow creek, and a few yards upstream Keith and Virginia were somewhere out of sight.

As the sun in its slow decline towards the west started to shine in their eyes, Eva suggested to Madge that it was time they were all moving homeward.

"Yes, I was just thinking the same thing," called out Claud, overhearing his wife, and shortly thereafter he and Jem came clambering up the bank and began vigorously drying themselves off with a couple of brightly striped beach towels.

"I can't see any sign of Keith and Virginia," remarked Eva to her husband as he was dragging on his clothes over his damp swimming trunks. Claud grunted in answer then sat down on a tree root to put his sandals on. That done, he rose and, dumping his towel on his wife, strode off down the edge of the creek to find the pair now perched on a couple of boulders in mid-stream.

"Coo-ee, you two!" he yelled, waving at them. "Time to make tracks home. Come on!" He waited to see his offspring safely scramble down from the rocks, swim over to the side and climb up out of the creek, before marching back to comb his hair, retrieve his soggy towel and stroll up to the house with the rest. Hot showers were the order of the day after that, although Keith and Virginia had already raced each other up to the house and Keith, having the longer legs, was already in the shower by the time the older members of the party reached the house. Virginia was dancing round the verandah in her swimsuit impatiently waiting for her brother. Madge and Jem laughed as they made for their corner room and showers in the quiet of their own bathroom.

**********

Chapter 10 - Kangaroos, Carols and Storm clouds
"Now watch out for kangaroos, everyone!" commanded Claud. It was just after seven o'clock the same evening and everyone, properly clean and clothed, was piled into the Holden Station wagon, on the way to the Combined Churches Carol service in the town park. They had had a quick dinner with promise of a substantial supper when they got home.

"They're a menace at night and dusk in particular. We don't want to collect any," Claud continued, swinging the wheel to avoid a huge pothole in the gravel road.

"Oh look, Jem," Madge cried. "That's one over there standing looking at us under that bush."

"Actually that's a wallaby," replied Claud apologetically. "When you get used to them you can tell the difference as the wallabies are smaller, more hunched over and different colouring - oh, over there - quick - oh you missed them. A big doe kangaroo and her little one. Oh now there you go," slowing the car down and stopping. "A big buck kangaroo right in the middle of the track. How's that for you?"

"How splendid," whispered Madge as if the huge animal could hear her inside the car. "As a matter of fact he looks rather like a man standing there. Look at those shoulder muscles. Is he fierce? Oh dear, he's going," as the kangaroo hopped off the road and effortlessly bounded over a four strand barbed wire fence enclosing a side paddock. Claud engaged first gear and the car moved forward.

"That big buck must stand at least seven feet tall when he's at full stretch," he commented. "But you were asking if they are fierce, Madge. Get Keith to tell you the answer to that since he's had a close encounter with one in the bush one time." Keith chuckled from the back seat where he was sitting with his mother and Virginia.

"I was in the northern hills after pigs, miles from anywhere. I was on my own but I had the dogs with me of course. One of them, Fred, I think it was, had bailed up a big buck - oh sorry, I mean Fred had cornered a big buck kangaroo. When I arrived I expected it to move off but it stayed put. I naturally didn't want to shoot it so I prodded it with the barrel of my .303 rifle - which was empty I might add. The 'roo simply grabbed the barrel with his two front paws and tugged. I tugged back. This went on for several seconds until I managed to grab it off the kangaroo. You wouldn't believe it but I walked off and it actually stayed there and watched me go."

Shortly afterwards the town was reached and Claud parked in the main street and they walked up to the park where the carol service was to take place. Madge had been to many Carols services both at the Chalet School and elsewhere, but never one like this. For one thing, the temperature was such a contrast and it was held outdoors. She kept having to remind herself that this was really Christmas. The large, leafy gum trees and pines in the park were draped with coloured lights, above which could be seen glimpses of stars in the warm night sky. At each entrance to the park a group of school children had presented every person with a candle in a stout cardboard holder. When everyone had arrived and been welcomed by one of the ministers, the candles were lit by the same children walking amongst the family groups who were sitting on rugs on the grass. On a portable wooden platform at the high point of the grass, sat the members of the town's Ministers' Fraternal from the various Protestant denominations. The wife of one of the minister's was seated at an upright piano set to one side of the platform, ready to accompany the singing.

Most of the carols, sung in unison by everyone present, were well known to Madge and Jem but there were a few distinctly Australian ones the Russells had never heard before. The various members of the clergy took turns at reading the Christmas story from the Bible. Unfortunately, items by a local church choir were almost drowned out by the noise of cicadas. One of the ministers preached a short sermon, another prayed and with a final carol the service ended. Not a minute too soon since, as the last notes faded, a low growl of thunder could be heard from the west.

Claud marshalled his flock quickly. "Let's slip out the side way now, before we're caught in the mob."

"I'm sorry to hurry you all away like that," he said apologetically as they drove away from the town centre. "I just think it would be a good idea to get home before that storm gets here."

"Ooh, look at the lightning in that huge cloud over there." Virginia was waving her arm urgently out of the open back window next to which she was sitting. Over in the east the brilliant expanse of starry sky collided abruptly with the distinctly drawn edge of a vast, shimmering, cumulus mass of cloud, constantly flickering with sheet lightning. "Will we get that, Daddy?"

"Not from that direction, Jinny. Folks over near the coast will get that storm. We'll get the one from the west - and there's also one over the northern hills - look at that fork lightning! My word, that's a hit somewhere."

"Looks like it's working up fast," commented Eva, turning round to peer behind her. "There's continuous sheet lightning over the west and no stars to be seen there now."

As the car wound around a hill from which a view back over the town lights could usually be had, the Hendersons all exclaimed in unison: "A blackout!"

"Must have struck up at the power house just after we got out of the built up area," Keith observed.

"Oh goody. We might have a blackout at home and have to have supper by candle light. How gorgeous!" This of course was Virginia.

A few minutes later as the Holden turned into the drive it could be seen that the house, whose verandah lights had been left on, was now in complete darkness - Virginia had her blackout.

**********

Chapter 11 - Blackout and Discussion
 "Well, young woman, I trust you are enjoying your candle-lit supper?" Jem quizzically regarded Virginia over his cup of tea. They were all seated on the front verandah in the soft light of two hurricane lamps and the tiny glow of a lone candle in a silver candlestick which Virginia had insisted on carrying out from the lounge room. That young lady grinned at Jem.

"Well it's not the same to say you had a 'hurricane lamp supper', is it?" she returned. "That sounds like we are people rescued after floods - or something," she added with a giggle. The lightning was still flashing sporadically with accompanying claps of thunder but fortunately it was heading north rather than eastwards towards the house and they were missing the worst. It was an electrical storm with no rain to soften the crackly atmosphere, which was rather oppressive, hence the verandah supper.

"Thank goodness for a fuel stove and a kerosene fridge," said Eva as she passed the plate of toast around. "Otherwise with this long blackout I'd be afraid the food would spoil in this heat. It's not getting any cooler is it? - Oh, there's the power back on now - and about time too," she added as the light at the end of the verandah suddenly came to life.

"Mummy, would it be okay if I go and play the piano? I've had enough to eat now," asked Virginia.

"Go on then, but make sure you don't have sticky fingers."

The sounds of 'While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night' came from the lounge room through the open door at the end of the verandah. There was silence as they enjoyed the music and the beautiful night scents of the garden. Presently Claud spoke.

"You know whenever I hear that particular carol it always reminds me of a place we visited in the 6th Divvy one winter during the War. I was in the Field Ambulance and we were stationed at a place called Zebdani, in Syria, just north-west of Damascus. We'd just passed through Palestine to the south - and in Zebdani the cold was intense with colossal snow drifts - I've got some snaps of it - and at night - oh - the stars..." for a moment Claud had to pause before he could go on. "The stars were amazing and I remember thinking at the time, the shepherds that first Christmas were not just any blokes. Those shepherds out on the hills really knew God. You can't gaze into those heavens each night and not see the Hand of God in it all. I remember thinking at the time no wonder the angels first appeared to the shepherds."

By this time Virginia in the lounge room was playing 'Silent Night'. Eva, Keith and Madge quietly stacked up the supper things and Eva and Keith took them into the kitchen; when they returned Virginia had switched to 'Away in a Manger'. The Hendersons and Russells settled back in their chairs. There was still an occasional flash of lightning and distant roll of thunder. Claud shifted in his seat.

"You know, I have a problem with Christmas," he said and paused as Jem and Madge gave him a startled look. Eva, who knew her husband, just smiled quietly to herself. Claud went on. "The trouble with Christmas is that folks only seem to think about the cute little Baby in the manger." He paused, and then continued with an intensity the Russells had not seen before. "Surely the message of Christmas is the Lord Jesus Christ coming to earth to give people His own Life to live. What gets to me is that a lot of our hymns and some of our carols make Christianity so wishy washy. We seem to think of Christ just as 'the Baby Jesus' or some kind of Santa Claus who's only there to give us everything we want or to make everything nice." Claud abruptly got up from his seat and strode over to the edge of the verandah then turned to face them again. "It's almost as if we forget He grew to manhood and that He wants us also to get beyond babyhood in our understanding of Him. How many people go along to a Christmas service and sing all the carols with great gusto but have never actually met the Lord? Or maybe they have had some initial experience of Him but have not really got to know Him?"

"Interesting you should say that, Claud," began Jem, leaning forward in his seat. "I've been thinking along those lines myself for some time." He turned to his wife. "Remember me saying to you that we should have a Christianity beyond the ceremonial?" As Madge nodded, Jem continued, "I've found myself thinking that surely the 'remission of sins' has to do with dealing with our sin - the excising of it - as in a surgical procedure - not just putting a sticking plaster over the top of our sin and hoping it will go away underneath."

Madge spoke softly here. "You know, if our Christianity is not providing the long term dealing with our sin, then there was not much point to the Babe in Bethlehem at all."

**********

Chapter 12 - Christmas Day Begins
Christmas Day dawned very still and very hot. With eager Christmas greetings everyone gathered in the lounge room for a quick breakfast. No one was inclined to linger over the meal, with the Tree in the alcove at the far end of the room beckoning in all its glory (the star now sitting up straight on the topmost point), surrounded by its gaily wrapped cluster of presents. Soon after the meal and washing up, they all gathered round in easy chairs as Virginia, being 'Chief Giver Outerer of Presents' (her own designation needless to state), crawled round the base of the tree 'like a stick insect doing contortions' which was Keith's brotherly description, as she retrieved all the most inaccessible presents first. The two dogs, Fred and Jess, ambled in and flopped down beside Keith's chair and Zebedee and Jiminy Cricket were stretched out full length, fast asleep on the cool, polished floor boards at the far end of the room.

"I think it would be best if we do what we usually do -" Eva proposed when the pile beside each person's chair was complete and the Christmas Tree looked rather 'bare of undergrowth' as Keith put it. Eva continued,

"- And each person opens his or her pile of presents in turn, otherwise it just becomes a - um -"

"Scrum!" supplied her son as she paused in search of a word. Jem who was busily engaged in neatly stacking his pile of presents in order of size next to his chair, looked up at that and, regarding Keith with a twinkle, asked if he was fond of Rugby?

"If I have to chase a pigskin around a paddock, I'd rather it was full of pig - not wind," was Keith's answer, at which there was a shout of laughter from the assembled company.

Madge was invited to be the first to open presents, but she could see that Virginia appeared to be in imminent danger of tying her long legs in knots with excitement, so Madge declined in favour of Virginia. As everyone was able to see and appreciate what each one received, it was a good system and, as Keith said, saved having to answer questions about 'what did you get?' for the rest of the day from people who were too busy opening their own to notice.

Eva gave Madge a beautiful silk scarf with a Sturt Desert Pea motif. Madge exclaimed in delight at the rich reds, golds and oranges. Jem also received a scarf to be worn with an overcoat and made of softest merino wool in a biscuit shade. From Keith, Madge and Jem each received a leather bookmark he had made himself, one of a series he had made during his Manual Arts teacher training course, featuring intricately tooled dancing brolgas and laced around the edges with leather thonging. Claud's present to both Madge and Jem was a pair of matching boxes of turned Australian red cedar, which he also had made himself.

"You could keep oddments such as jewellery or cuff links or watches in them - or anything you fancy for that matter," he informed them. They were polished to enhance the natural grain and the deep red colour of the timber, and a bed of dark green, thick felt was glued inside. Madge gave Eva a colourfully embroidered afternoon tea cloth from Switzerland and Claud a gentian blue silk tie. Jem gave the Hendersons a double photo frame of delicately carved wood, also from Switzerland.

"We brought with us to Australia all sorts of presents of the kind that could be easily packed, and when we knew we were having Christmas with you, we chose these presents from them, of the sort we thought you might like," Madge explained. To Keith, Jem gave a Swiss army knife.

From Madge, Keith received a silk tie in a beautiful burgundy shade. Virginia's gift to Madge was a set of handkerchiefs, the corners of which she had embroidered in tiny sprays of wattle, part of her work in her school needlework class for the year. Eva privately told Madge later they were the only sort of fancy work Virginia had the patience to do. For Jem, Virginia had bought a desk calendar featuring tiny pictures of Australian wildflowers. The Russells' gift to Virginia was Jo's latest novel.

"What sort of books do you like reading?" Madge asked the child after Virginia had very politely thanked her.

"I just love the Billabong books 'cos they're about Australia; my other favourites are the Anne books. I'm not much fussed on the Pollyanna ones. I think she's a pain, actually. I love Jane Eyre and Little Women and Tale of Two Cities - um, oh yes, I think Josephine M. Bettany, your sister, is quite good too," Virginia added kindly. Madge bit back a laugh and was fortunately saved by the shrill ring of the telephone.

"Who on earth can that be on Christmas Day?" remarked Eva in surprise as Claud got up to answer it, fighting his way through Christmas wrapping paper strewn all over the floor. "Get the clothes basket, would you please, Jinny and put all the wrapping paper in, otherwise we'll never move in here," she added, while the rest of the company exchanged thanks and inspected their own and everyone else's presents more closely.

Claud returned to the lounge room looking unusually grave. Keith took one look at his face and said,

"What's up, Dad?"

"That was Clive Anderson to say there was a lightning strike up on the northern hills last night - probably the one we saw coming home - and it's started a fire in a sheltered gully on the property he's got up there. He saw the smoke first thing this morning from his house in town and drove straight up there to investigate. Poor chap, Christmas Day and all! He says it's not too bad at the moment as there's no wind but he's ringing round everybody to warn them." He saw Madge and Jem looking puzzled and went on in explanation: "In Australia if a bushfire gets going in summer it can do untold damage. There have been some bad ones down round Sydney and some time ago they had a terrible one up the Blue Mountains that wiped out many buildings. In country towns like ours all the blokes get together to help fight a bushfire. It's a case of all pitch in to help since you never know when you're going to need help on your own property. In a sheltered gully with no wind, the dew at night should put it out, but if a strong wind gets up, it fans the fire and can blow leaves and bark around and start other spot fires."

"I see," said Jem quietly. "Do you see any likelihood of being called out today? Because if you do I should like to help."

"Clive thinks everything will be hunky-dory if the wind doesn't get up. But if a hot westerly gets up then it will be all hands on deck - Christmas Day or not. Thanks very much for the offer, Jem, but I'm afraid you'll have to stay out of this one. If a chappie with no experience tries to fight a bushfire, he can end up being a danger to himself and to others, even with the best will in the world. Keith will come with me though, won't you?"

"Naturally - though of course it goes without saying that all bushfires will have to wait until I inspect Mum's rum custard for the pud!" He laughed as he encountered Madge's startled expression. "She never puts enough rum in it."

"Before anyone tastes any custard, rum-flavoured or not, the table has to be set and the vegetables put on. So if you want any custard you'd better come and help me in the kitchen, you and Virginia," responded Eva.

Jem unexpectedly announced, "We'll all come, since it's Christmas. Can't have a few slaving for the dinner when the rest of us lie back in the lap of luxury - that is if you don't mind having your kitchen invaded?" he finished up rather uncertainly.

Eva laughed. "Come in by all means; it will certainly get the job done quicker. But first we'd better set the table." Jem and Virginia laid the beautiful table cloth in fine crochet work; Madge and Eva set out the silver cutlery and serviettes, then Virginia raced out to the garden to bring some roses for the table.

"It seems to be getting a bit windy now," she stated as she arranged the roses in a glass bowl. A little later in the big airy kitchen, Eva organised her troops.

"Of course, the turkey and roast pork were put in the oven first thing this morning - so, Jem, if you'd mind peeling and cutting potatoes and pumpkins?"

"He should be good at that being a surgeon," interposed Keith slyly.

"Madge could make the gravy - if you'd like?" continued Eva, ignoring her flippant son who just grinned at Jem who winked back. "Keith, you could peel the carrots and put them on to boil - Jinny, where's your father gone?" she added, suddenly realising her husband had disappeared some time earlier.

"Probably gone to check out what the smoke's doing from the bush fire," put in Keith who was rummaging around in the drawer in search of a vegetable knife, the usual one having been presented to Jem for the potatoes.

**********

Chapter 13 - Christmas Dinner
A little while later, after swishing away flies outside the kitchen screen door, Claud walked in to be confronted with the surprising sight of a kitchen full of guests busily preparing Christmas dinner. Jem was kneeling on the floor in front of the oven basting potatoes and pumpkins. Beside him stood Keith watching over the simmering vegetables on the stove top. Eva was overseeing the steaming of the pudding while at the same time stirring custard and Madge, who had already made the gravy, was, together with Virginia, arranging a salad bowl and dishes of nuts and other Christmas fare. The wireless in the corner was quietly broadcasting a recording of carols from Ely Cathedral to which Virginia was singing along, accompanied by much tuneful whistling from Jem and Keith.

At one thirty sharp they were seated round the big dining table all ready, after Claud said grace, to do justice to the Christmas dinner they each had helped prepare, since even Claud arrived back in time to be roped in to the preparations of the peas. After the turkey, roast pork with its crackling and the vegetables had been demolished - "mutilated" to quote Virginia, and they were enjoying the Christmas pudding with brandy butter - or hard sauce, made by Eva some days earlier - custard with almost enough rum in it to satisfy Keith, the phone rang again. Claud once more looking serious, quickly got up to answer but very soon returned to call Madge and Jem to the phone as it was a person to person trunk call from the girls and Kevin and Kester.

"We're having a whale of a time and just going to go down to the beach and we'll have Christmas tea there later. The surf's up, we're going body surfing and we should get some good shoots." This was Kester who evidently had imbibed a quantity of surfing jargon and was anxious to try it out on every possible occasion. "Oh, by the way, Mum, thanks for the presents from you and Dad that you sent up with us."

"He's impossible!" complained Madge as she related the conversation to her hosts back at the table. "All he is thinking of is the beach - and Christmas presents from his parents come a very poor second. At least I got more sense out of the girls. They told me they had all saved up to make this call as part of our Christmas present." Madge smiled in satisfaction as she applied herself to the second helping of pudding Eva was offering. Jem had no sooner sat down after his part in the conversation at the phone than it rang again. This time it was the Exchange operator to tell them to stand by for an overseas call for Lady Russell. In a few minutes it rang and Madge was connected. The caller was none other than Jo!

Through the open door they could all hear Madge in the hall exclaim, "Jo! How lovely to hear your voice. But whatever time is it over there?... Oh, I see... Oh how delightful for the children... Yes, yes... Just wonderful. I'll tell you all about it in a letter... We've just finished... I don't know, somewhere round two o'clock I imagine... Oh Jo! I Will Not! You get ruder all the time!... Yes I'll tell him... Josephine Mary Maynard! I should put you on to tell him yourself and see what you'll get... Thank you for all the lovely presents. We had a family present opening in Sydney earlier... Oh good... Take care of... oh bother!"

"Yes we gathered it was Jo," Jem informed her as she returned to the table. "What on earth did she come out with this time?"

Madge sat back in her chair and laughed. "It was about one thirty in the morning. They had all just got back from Midnight Mass and she was so pleased because it started snowing gently just before they went and the children thought they weren't going to get a white Christmas because it had been unseasonably warm up until today. But do you know what she said? That if I had been eating Christmas dinner till two o'clock in the afternoon I'd be as fat as the pudding and she sent you her love and told me to inform you, Jem, that you had obviously gone soft with all your Australian holidaying and weren't keeping a proper eye on me! She loved our presents but we got cut off just at the end. Isn't she awful!"

**********

Chapter 14 - Raging Bushfire!
Later in the afternoon they were sitting at their ease in the lounge room with a pleasant sense of idleness - not to mention repletion - after completing the washing up together and singing rounds at the same time. They could not relax on the verandah as it faced west and was too hot. More worryingly, the wind had come up and was gusting unpleasantly so Eva had shut the western windows, pulled the curtains across to keep out the sun and switched on an electric fan as the day was getting much hotter.

"I for one think it would be lovely to hear some of Madge's stories about the Tirol and overseas Christmases, especially that one you mentioned when we were decorating the tree," suggested Eva with a smile at Madge, as she brought in coffee and cream along with more of the delicious dark chocolates they had enjoyed on their first dinner together. "What's more, they might make us feel cooler," she added with a laugh. Virginia got up to help her hand them round but to her mother's surprise refused any herself.

"I'm okay," she informed her mother as that lady glanced at her sharply. "It's just I'm as full as a goog."

"I - Beg - Your - Pardon - Virginia Henderson!?!"

"Oh, sorry, Mum," Virginia had remembered the visitors and had the grace to blush, but making a quick recovery went on, "I should say, 'I have had an elegant sufficiency' - and if I had any more it would be..." she wound down with an irrepressible giggle as she encountered her mother's eye.

So, as the hot afternoon outside wore on towards an equally hot evening, Madge told them about that marvellous Innsbruck Christmas with the Mensch family, the wonderful stories told by the Grossmutter of severe winters in her childhood and of the wolves which had appeared in the city. She also told them of the walk before that Christmas, down the snowy mountain side to Spartz with Joey and the Robin between them. She told them of the frozen stillness, the tall dark pines and the blackness of the silent stream under its thick crust of ice. There were descriptions of the wonderful Christmas music of the choir boys singing in the great Hof-Kirche. There was the merry sleigh drive on that long ago Christmas afternoon as they skimmed over the snow beneath the austere mountains, their towering splendour clad in eternal snow. How far away it seemed from this hot, gusty Australian Christmas afternoon with its swaying gum trees and threat of bushfire. Instead of frozen stillness, crows were cawing their wailing cry, sounding almost human in their long drawn out notes competing with the ever present, shrill sound of cicadas.

The low, musical voice paused and there was silence in the big, shadowy room. Just then the telephone gave another shrill ring. Claud, who had been very quiet all afternoon, moved off quickly to answer it. In a few moments he hurried in to say,

"That was Jim Gunn - Bush Fire Brigade Chief. The fire's got going on Clive Anderson's property. The wind whipped it out of the gully and they've now got spot fires a mile in front of it along the ridge fanned by this hot westerly. We'll have to get going as quick as we can, Keith. I'm sorry to have to leave you, Jem and Madge, but I know you'll understand. Eva, we'll need sandwiches because it may well be an overnight job. And a thermos of coffee too, please. We'll have to change -" and he was gone on the word closely followed by his son.

Eva, Madge and Virginia hurried off to the kitchen, while Jem, left alone in the lounge room, whirled around to the big bookcase near the door and smote the palm of his hand against the end of it in exasperation. Here was one major crisis in which he was powerless to help, he who had so many times been in the forefront of disaster relief organisation in his years in the Tirol. He stood still in futile anger, then realised that if nothing else, he could help the women in the kitchen.

A bare twenty minutes or so later he was standing on the verandah with his wife, Eva and Virginia, waving to the departing utility carrying off Claud and Keith together with lunch box, thermos and various paraphernalia for fighting the fire. As the utility roared off out of sight in a cloud of dust, Eva suggested they stroll down the garden, accompanied by the two dogs, to see what the bushfire smoke was doing. They came to a clearing in the trees and what they saw caused them all to gasp, even Eva and Virginia who were used to the sight of bushfire smoke. Over the northern hills, which had looked so peaceful the day the Russells first caught sight of them from the station, was a huge pall of orange-grey smoke with dirty white edges, billowing eastward along a front several miles long. It rose very high into the sky, vast, awesome and menacing.

"What I can't understand," said Jem staring at the smoke, "is why didn't they call Claud sooner? Why wait until the blaze is that big?"

"Oh, Jem, a fire can be a tiny thing in a sheltered gully like this was this morning and a man looks at it and thinks that will be all right while there's no wind, then a strong westerly gets up and in a matter of minutes it becomes a raging inferno. It happens so quickly. Believe me, Jim Gunn would have phoned around the men just as soon as he could." They all stood and stared at the ominous, surging mass of smoke for some time, unable to take their eyes from it and wondering whereabouts Claud and Keith were and if they were safe. Virginia drew close to her mother and took her hand.

"I'm sure the Lord will look after Daddy and Keith, Mummy," she said softly.

"Yes, we have to trust that He will," her mother agreed. After a pause, Eva turned away from that baleful sight in the north to gaze over to the west. "What we need is a storm and a good long, drenching downpour - what Claud calls a 'gully raker'," she said. "Away down south-west there seem to be some clouds working up that may be promising - oh well, we'd better see about some tea for us here."

A perfunctory tea it was, as no one was really hungry after Christmas dinner as well as the anxiety about the fire and the men fighting it. Over a small turkey sandwich - on the verandah, now that the sun was going down - Jem asked Eva how a fire like that could be fought.

"It's not easy in such thick timber as you get up there. There're some very rugged parts in those hills. They are deceptive seen from here. Some of the men take out forty four gallon drums of water in their trucks and they use a pump and hose. Others have a sort of back pack affair with its own pump and hose. Sometimes they use wet Hessian bags to beat out the flames - when they can get sufficiently close to them, that is. One method, when it is a huge fire, is to back burn. What they do is choose a place in the path of the fire and do a controlled burn to try and contain it. That's effective if there are no spot fires further on made by burning debris blown through the air."

**********

Chapter 15 - When the Rain Came
After nightfall they took torches and strolled down the garden again and the sight was even more awesome and this time rather beautiful. The top of the range was silhouetted by a line of red, flickering fire, which lit up the base of the vast pall of smoke with a glow of red ochre reaching far up into the night sky. Occasionally the flames would flare up, as the eucalyptus in a gum tree exploded into flame. They stood silent for a long time watching the fearsome spectacle on the horizon as the fire gradually ate its way along the range. No one wanted to go in doors and certainly no one thought of getting any sleep that night.

"Hey - the wind's dropped!" suddenly exclaimed Virginia. They had been so intent on the fire, no one had noticed that at nightfall the gusts had died down to a slight breeze, which had since dropped to a heavy stillness. Now a distant growl of thunder was heard. A pause, then a much closer roll of thunder. Another pause as if the night was holding its breath, then in the distance a stir among the trees with a nearby soughing among the leaves, a terrific clap of thunder with a smell of rain and then there was a sound of a pelting of fast raindrops steadily moving up the paddocks towards them.

"Run, quickly or we'll be soaked!" As Eva spoke, they switched on their torches and hurried as fast as they could go, back to the shelter of the verandah where the lights revealed the rapidly approaching curtain of rain.

"You can actually see the edge of the rain - as if you could stand dry and reach out and touch it like a wall!" marvelled Virginia. Then abruptly the downpour was upon them. They had to draw back from the edge of the verandah as the gutters had no hope of coping and the rain actually bounced up from the rim of the guttering to form a miniature, dancing waterfall. The sodden flowers were battered and the torrential rain drumming on the corrugated iron roof of the house was deafening. The temperature was dropping markedly and the air felt freshly washed and wholesome.

"I think a good cup of tea is in order now," unexpectedly declared Jem. As he heard his wife gasp, he hastened to add, "That, of course, is my professional prescription since we have all been under a strain with that fire - especially you, Eva and Virginia. By the sound of that rain the fire won't stand a chance - do you agree, Eva?"

"If we are getting it here so heavily, they should get it where they are very soon, if not already. Yes, I think we'll act on your prescription, Jem." The downpour, still continuing unabated with an occasional mutter of thunder, was such a boost to the morale that the cup of tea turned into another meal.

They were still sitting there an hour or so later talking over everything that had happened since Madge and Jem arrived and delighting in the continued rain which had settled into a soothing, steady beat, when there was a step of heavy boots on the back verandah outside - which caused the female members of the party to jump - and a moment later, the screen door opened to reveal two sodden and dripping figures smeared with soot and mud.

"Fire's out, thank God," announced Claud. "It didn't have a hope when the rain started to bucket down like that -" He stopped there, further explanation being impossible since his wife and daughter had jumped up and were hugging him and Keith, with no regard for their soggy state, although after Virginia had hugged them she remarked that they did feel 'a bit ooey - yukky - gooey'. Later when the two fire fighters had showered and changed their clothes and were sitting around the same table, Claud described the battle it had been and how at one stage they had been almost surrounded by flame. "We prayed hard then, I can tell you -" he stopped, seeing his wife's face, then went on, "And that rain was sure an answer to prayer."

"There, didn't I tell you, Mummy, that God would look after them?"

"You did indeed and He certainly did," replied her mother, "for which we are all so thankful," she added looking at her husband and son. Just at that moment the clock struck twelve which prompted Keith to remark that as Christmas was now declared closed for this year, he was off to bed. At that everybody suddenly realised how tired he or she was and the conference broke up and took itself, yawning, off to bed.

As Jem was about to turn off the lamp beside their bed, Madge made one final remark. "I thought I should miss the snow and ice of our Christmases at home, but for sheer excitement you can't beat a Christmas in the Australian Bush." And with that she turned over and was soon fast asleep.

**********

Chapter 16 - Boxing Day Visitors
Boxing Day dawned cool and fresh after the torrential rain, which eased during the night, and then cleared around sunrise to reveal a glorious, sparkling, sunny day, but with a fresh southerly which kept the temperature down to a pleasant level. Eva had decreed the night before that no one was to get up until he or she felt like it since the last few days had been so hectic and she had no mind for Madge Russell to go home after her supposed recuperation from the 'flu feeling fagged out. Jem fully concurred with this dictum, so everyone slept in until somewhere around eleven o'clock and a leisurely breakfast was enjoyed on the verandah.

"Eva and I were wondering," began Claud, vigorously buttering a second slice of toast as he glanced across at Madge and Jem, "If you would like to come out spotlighting tonight and have a barbecue in a rocky cave we know? We won't be shooting anything but we might see some interesting animals if we are lucky."

"We would love to come! Although we have been to barbecues in Sydney we haven't had one in the Bush yet and spotlighting sounds very exciting - even though I have no idea what one does." Madge ended on a laugh and everyone laughed with her.

"We take a spotlight and shine it around as we drive and see what animals are about," explained Eva. "Claud's brother, Kelvin, has a property adjoining Clive Anderson's - where the fire was last night - and we go out there often."

She stood up, about to pour more cups of tea, then paused as there came the sound of a vehicle approaching up the driveway. Claud, preceded by Fred and Jess, who tore along barking wildly, walked to the end of the verandah to meet the visitors. From where they sat, it was impossible for Madge and Jem to see the vehicle pulled up at the gate, but the visitors soon stepped onto the verandah with Claud, the two dogs now padding sedately beside him.

There were two men; the first, tall and thin, was dressed in a dark green, open necked shirt with long sleeves rolled above the elbows, moleskin trousers and a pair of elastic sided brown boots. The second man was short and wiry with a weather beaten face. He was wearing a short sleeved, dark blue shirt, also open necked, above a well worn pair of khaki shorts with thick, turned down woollen socks and similar boots. Both men were sun bronzed to a deep shade of mahogany and both wore wide brimmed, rather shapeless, old felt hats which looked as if they were part of the anatomy rather than an article of clothing. Claud introduced the tall man as Jim Gunn, the Bushfire Brigade Chief, and the other as Clive Anderson whose property had the bushfire.

"Pleased to meet you." Jim Gunn took off his hat and shook hands firmly with Jem and turning to Madge, grasped her hand in a grip which made her wince inwardly, then greeted the rest of the Hendersons.

"G'day how are you?" said Clive Anderson all in one word, swiftly shaking hands with the Russells, his hat grasped in his left hand.

"Sorry to interrupt your lunch," began Jim Gunn as he took in the table with the remains of the late breakfast. "We're doing the rounds of all the blokes that helped with the fire last night."

"Sit down and have a cup of tea with us. We were just going to have one ourselves," invited Eva, while Keith rearranged chairs and brought over two more. Virginia dashed off to the kitchen and speedily returned with extra cups and saucers. The visitors were soon supplied with tea and Christmas cake.

" 'Preciate your help last night, you and the young bloke," explained Clive Anderson looking at Claud and Keith. " 'Specially on Christmas Day. It must've mucked up your Christmas good and proper. We didn't get Christmas at our place - the wife reckons we'll have it tomorrer." He paused to stroke the silky head of Jess who was stretched out near his chair. "The other thing I wanted to mention, Claud, is that some of the properties around mine are having a bit of trouble with cattle being pinched. I know your brother, Kelvin, is away having Christmas with his married daughter down in Quirindi, so if you're going out to his property at all, it might pay you to keep your eyes skinned."

"Thanks for the warning, Clive," replied Claud. "As a matter of fact we're going out there tonight for a barbecue and taking the spotlight, so we'll see if we turn up anything that shouldn't be there."

"Good-oh. Mind you, we have a good idea who it might be, but trouble is we've got no proof - yet!" responded Clive as he munched his cake.  Jim Gunn drained the rest of his tea in one gulp, accepted gratefully a second cup from Eva and looked across at Jem and Madge.

"How d'you like Australia, Jim? We heard Claud had some New Australians staying with him for a bit." Jem's distinctly un-Australian name had obviously defeated Jim Gunn.

"We think it is a beautiful country but of course it is so vast we have only seen a small portion," replied Jem, wondering how on earth he and Madge qualified as 'New Australians'. Claud came to his rescue.

"They're not migrants, Jim. They are out for a visit. Jem is a doctor and has been involved in several medical conferences out here." Claud decided that would be the least complicated explanation.

"Oh, so that's the story. Mulga wire got it wrong. Listen to too much gossip and you soon find yourself in strife." The Bush Fire Brigade Chief nodded sagely as he drank his second cup. Eva passed the cake plate to Clive Anderson, but he shook his head.

"Fair go, Eva. I've had two whopping slices already - weeell, we'd better make tracks I s'pose. Can't sit and chin-wag all day. Thanks for the cake, Eva."

"Too right," agreed Jim Gunn. "Bonzer cake. See yer later, Jim, and, ah - Mrs Russell. See yer, Eva - and you kids."

"Hooroo, everyone," said Clive Anderson. "Got a good day for it anyhow." With this final cryptic statement, they strode off down the verandah with Claud to see them off, accompanied by the faithful Fred and Jess.

**********

Chapter 17 - Barbecue in a Cave
The Station wagon bumped its way over several grids separating the properties and obviating the need for gates. They had reached the top of the hills Madge and Jem had seen from the town and were surprised to find it such a steep drive to the top of the range.

"Here we are. We are on top of the Great Dividing Range here," announced Claud. "This is my brother, Kelvin's, property. He runs beef cattle and we have a share in it." As they climbed out of the vehicle, Madge and Jem gazed round them with awe and amazement.

In front of them stood three gigantic boulders each about forty feet in height with a diameter of about twenty feet, two to the left and the third standing about twenty feet to the right. Wedged over the space between them was another boulder of only slightly smaller proportions. These four formed a sort of cave whose internal height was equal to its width. Rock lilies grew in crevices as well as various sorts of foliage with thin, waving green fronds. All around were towering gum trees, framing the boulders, and starred with fluffy cream blossom through which the late afternoon sun slanted.

"Oh look, Daddy. Above that hill over there!" They all looked to where Virginia was pointing. Silhouetted, dark against a cloud, a large wedge tailed eagle circled.

"Yes, he's a big 'un," responded her father, shading his eyes against the sun. "He must have a wing span of well over six feet I'd say."

"He'll be after carrion from the bushfire," commented Eva.

"Where was the fire in relation to this property, Claud?" inquired Jem watching the great bird which, having sighted prey some distance away, folded his wings back and arrowed across the sky and out of sight.

"Next property to this, - oh - about two or three miles to the west."

Keith, who came back from unloading barbecue gear, in time to hear the question and answer, put in grimly, "If the rain hadn't turned on the downpour it did, this whole place could have gone up too."

In a short time preparations were complete and the barbecue ready to begin. Claud and Keith quickly had a fire going. As they threw on twigs, bark and dry gum leaves, the fire crackled and sporadically showered a fountain of sparks which disintegrated safely in the air. The floor of the cave being earth and cleared of all twigs, leaves and bark, it was quite safe to light a cooking fire and there was plenty of space for the smoke to escape. After all the rain, any stray spark would have a hard time starting any flames and Eva pointed out that if they sat up wind the smoke would not bother their eyes and it would keep the flies and mossies away.

As the light waned, the stars appeared and through the spaces between the boulders the gum trees could just be seen, silhouetted against the clear, velvety evening sky. A hurricane lamp provided a gentle light which was augmented by the candles Virginia attached to various rocky promontories by means of holding the lighted candles at an angle so the melted wax ran down the sides and formed a pool on the rock surface. She stood the candles upright in the melted wax, which when cool, adhered to the candle. By this stage the fire had died down to hot coals and it was time to cook the food. From a small tin Claud produced a piece of lard and tossed it onto the heated barbecue plate - which was actually a plough disc supported by heavy metal legs - and the lard immediately melted with an angry sputter. Juicy steaks, along with a couple of lumps of butter, were slapped on next, and sizzled enticingly as Claud lifted and turned them over to brown. Sliced onions, and later tomatoes and eggs were added to the barbecue plate.

Keith held, by an extendible handle, a wire grilling frame filled with sausages over the heat away from the barbecue plate and the sausage fat slowly dripped with a series of satisfying spatters into the fire. Meanwhile, Eva and Virginia distributed gaily coloured Bakelite picnic plates with lavishly buttered slices of bread along with knives and forks and paper serviettes. When all was cooked, Eva spooned potato salad onto each plate before the meat was served.

"I was going to put in some beetroot as well, until I thought about the awful stain it would make if we spilled any, so I hope you will take the thought for the deed. I have sliced pineapple and cucumber here as well."

"My goodness, this barbecue is rapidly degenerating into a banquet," exclaimed Jem. "It all looks and smells so delicious - no, 'scrumbatious' is the word, isn't it, Virginia?" - with a twinkle in her direction - "I only hope I can make room for all of it in my little tummy."

"Little, did you say?" asked his wife, glancing at her husband's middle. "I think your corpulence, my dear, has increased somewhat, since we have been having such magnificent meals here."

"Corpulence? Corpulence! Is that how you describe your respected husband, you slanderous woman?" expostulated Jem, with well-feigned horror. "I'll have you know I'm not many ounces more than my usual elegant self." The Hendersons chuckled.

"I hate to interrupt this exchange of compliments," murmured Eva, "But may I offer you some more sausages, Jem?"

"Far be it from me to give my wife any further ammunition for her libellous descriptions of my proportions -" began Jem haughtily, "- Although," he added, with a sudden descent from lofty heights, "these sausages do look as if they are crying out to be eaten," and he helped himself to a couple more from the plate Eva was holding.

After the meal, which was followed by black grapes, strawberries and cherries, when all was cleared away and the hurricane lamp turned low, they sat back comfortably in the candle glow and gazed into the vermilion, ruby, purple and cobalt depths of the fire. The tall shadows played on the rock faces with their coating of green mosses and orange and cream lichens and through the gaps in the rocks the stars twinkled in the now completely dark sky. After they all chatted quietly for a while, Virginia suddenly asked Madge to tell them about the Chalet School.

"To tell you all about the Chalet School would take more time than we have on the Tablelands, but I'll tell you about how it began." So she briefly described how she and her twin brother, Dick, had decided, for financial reasons and also because of the delicate health of Jo, their younger sister, that Madge would start an international school for girls in the Austrian Tirol. She told of the way the school rapidly grew and of her partnership with Mademoiselle LePâttre and described the glorious setting of the Tiern See near whose banks the school was first situated. As she ceased speaking, Virginia was full of eager questions.

"Is the Chalet School like the books by Josephine M. Bettany? Is that what it's like there? Are the books real?"

Madge laughed. "Most certainly. Jo's books are based on her actual experiences when she was a pupil at the Chalet School and during the war."

"Oh wow! Then she didn't just make it all up? I wish I could meet her - Oh but the librarian at school wrote a book once and she is awfully quiet and hard to talk to. Is your sister like that?" The innocent question produced an unexpected reaction as Jem leaned back against the rock and roared while Madge rocked with laughter and everyone else chuckled in sympathy.

"I'm sorry to appear so rude, Virginia," Madge said when she could speak. "It's just that if you were able to have one glance at my sister, you would know that 'quiet and hard to talk to' do not describe her at all. In fact she is just the opposite. I'll tell you a little about her sometime before we go back to Sydney."

At this moment Claud looked at his watch and announced that if they were going to go spotlighting on the way back it would be a much slower trip so they had better start now.

**********

Chapter 18 - Cattle Duffers!
When all was packed in the Station wagon by the light of a large torch and the fire smothered with earth, they stood outside the cave to look at the stars. The Milky Way soared across the heavens and the Southern Cross, with its two Pointers, stood sentinel deep in the southern sky. Up here on the crest of the Great Dividing Range, with no moon at the moment and well away from any ground lights, the stars were an awesome expanse sweeping over the entire vault of the sky. As they stood in silence gazing up at the glorious sight, there came a distant, long drawn howl.

"Dingo," Claud said quietly as Virginia clutched his arm. Madge was surprised to feel the hairs on the nape of her neck rising as the howl died away. She shivered and stepped closer to Jem. The silence that followed was uncanny and expectant. The stillness was broken as the howl came again and was answered from afar.

"Let's get into the car," suggested Eva. They soon drove off, with Keith holding the spotlight out of the front passenger window. The spotlight consisted of a car headlight with a handle welded onto the back and the leads from it attached to the car battery. A switch on this headlight enabled it to be turned on and off at will. Claud took a different route from the one by which they had come and soon the Station wagon was crawling over a narrow dirt track between open paddocks with only one side fenced.

Keith switched the spotlight off for a moment allowing an uninterrupted view of the vast, starlight sky. Suddenly the silence was broken by Virginia's urgent voice.

"Daddy, those cows down the paddock there seem to be moving awfully quickly all of a sudden!"

Keith switched on the spotlight and swung it around to reveal a mob of cattle streaming across the paddock towards the road, about a hundred yards from the wire fence.

"What on earth's got them on the move like that?" exclaimed Keith.

"Could it be the dingoes we heard earlier bothering them?" wondered Virginia.

"Good Scott!" Claud cried. "They've got a couple of blokes driving them!"

"Look, Daddy! There's a cattle truck parked round that bend in front of us!" exclaimed the sharp-eyed Virginia as the spotlight glanced over the vehicle.

"They're trying to steal Kelvin's cattle!" yelled Claud catching up from beneath his driver's seat the stockwhip which Madge and Jem had admired on the afternoon of their arrival. He and Keith leapt out of the car, then Claud bent down to the window to hastily say, "Jem, drive the Holden down and block the truck - oh they've spotted us and are trying to drive away! Follow them, Jem! Come on, Keith, you go after those two on foot! I'll try to head the cattle away - bring the torch!"

Hastily clambering through the fence, Claud and Keith then dashed across the paddock. Jem, who had hurriedly climbed into the driver's seat, drove off after the truck. As the Holden picked up speed, the passengers could just make out, in the wavering light of Keith's torch, two running figures hotly pursued by Keith accompanied by the sharp crack of the stockwhip savagely swung by Claud.

"Looks like they've cut the fence wires, Mummy," said Virginia peering at the fence as the headlights, shining round the open curve, revealed trailing wires and a large gap in the fence adjacent to where the truck had been parked. "Ooh, goody! Dad's managed to turn the cows - they're going the other way now."

"I think those cattle duffers might well be Sid Welsh and his two sons," remarked Eva as Jem changed down a gear for a wash-out across the gravel track. "He's not known for great honesty in the district and Clive Anderson, who had the fire yesterday, has had trouble with him in the past."

"I'm thankful that rain has laid the dust otherwise we'd not be able to see the road in front, with the speed that truck's going," remarked Eva a few moments later. "The dust on these dirt roads in the bush would be blinding at this speed when you're travelling closely behind another vehicle."

"I couldn't agree more," muttered Jem, as he changed down for a tree lined bend. Then abruptly he jammed on the brakes, as round the bend, the headlights revealed the truck, stopped in front of an obstruction across the width of the track.

"Oh my goodness!" gasped Eva. "It's a big tree down! The heavy rain must have loosened the roots."

"The driver's getting out. Quick, Jem!" cried Madge. But fortunately the driver had no intention of fleeing on foot. He turned to face them, the glare of the Holden's lights revealing a large fat man with his hands raised in surrender. Jem hurried over to him.

"Okay. I'll come quietly. I can't go anywhere with this tree blocking me. Heck, with my weight I can't run either," remarked the truck driver. "Who are you? I haven't seen you round the district," he added, eyeing Jem curiously.

"Never mind who I am," replied Jem grimly. "We are going to take you in to town to the police -"

"You'd better come with us, Sid Welsh," put in Eva, who came up at that point, followed by Madge and Virginia. "I know you very well and if you refuse to come, the police will simply visit you at your place. You are obviously helping the cattle duffers who I think were probably your boys."

"Looks like you got me good and proper, Mrs Henderson, but you can't prove the others were my boys," complained the fat man.

"Just get into this car and we'll see about that when we meet up with the Henderson men who went after them on foot," ordered Jem crisply, taking Sid Welsh by his elbow and propelling him towards the Holden. "Get in the back."

"We're going to have to get that truck turned around, Jem, because we'll need its extra seats when we meet up with Claud and Keith," said Eva. "Sid can't know these paddocks of Kelvin's because this one here is not fenced and it's flat enough for the truck to turn around quite easily."

"That may well be so," he replied, "but if I drive the truck I don't want to leave you two women and Virginia to drive alone with this man -"

"Look, Jem, I've been thinking," interrupted his wife firmly. "If Eva drives the Holden with Virginia in the front with her, you can be in the back with this man and there's no reason why I couldn't drive the truck. It's not an enormous vehicle so the gears won't be a problem and it's not very far to drive back to where we left the men."

"That would be very helpful, Madge. Don't you agree, Jem?" said Eva. "Because then I could lead us down a small side track that would be a short cut back."

"Oh, Mummy! Please could I go in the truck too?" pleaded Virginia." I could help point out the Three Mile track."

"Not a bad idea, if you don't mind, Eva," acknowledged Jem.

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Chapter 19 - Madge Drives a Cattle Truck
A few minutes later Eva, with Jem in the back seat of the Holden next to their prisoner, led the way in a big arc around the side paddock. Fortunately for Madge, there was sufficient distance between the cattle truck and the fallen tree, to allow her to drive forward and round without the need to tackle reversing first. So Madge, with Virginia excitedly perched up beside her, was able to follow Eva's tail lights back along the track until the Holden slowed right down and turned off to the left.

"My goodness! Just as well we have your mother to follow," she observed to the child beside her after the gear changes and turn were successfully accomplished. "I wouldn't have dreamed there was a track here."

"Yup. Even in broad daylight the Three Mile's hard enough to find unless you know it's there," Virginia agreed, hanging on tightly to the top of the partly open window with one hand and the edge of the worn seat with the other as the old cattle truck bumped and swayed over the rough dirt track. The truck brushed aside leaves and small branches of the crowding bush as the headlights revealed a thread of track meandering around large rocks and dipping down to cross tiny creeks. The tail lights of the Holden could just be seen far in front.

"This bumpy old track makes the headlights jiggle all over the countryside," chuckled Virginia presently as the cattle truck bounced over a hidden rock. "Never mind, the bush opens out soon so it won't be so bouncy. You mightn't think it is a short cut but we've only got a little way to go now."

The words were no sooner out of Virginia's mouth when the sudden, darting movement of a wallaby across the track so startled Madge that she instinctively swung the big steering wheel sharply to the side of the narrow track, not seeing the sharp stake, the remains of an old fence post, sticking up at a sharp angle. With a sickening jolt the front wheel of the cattle truck impaled itself on the low projection and came to an abrupt halt to the accompanying hiss of expelled air from the punctured tyre.

On impact, Madge's head had come into painful contact with the roof of the cab and as she came to rest back on the seat, she turned anxiously to look at her young passenger, switching on the tiny overhead light. To Madge's horror, Virginia was slumped against the passenger door, eyes closed in a pale face and a smear of blood on the window - obviously from a head wound! Fortunately, since Madge had feared the child was unconscious, at that moment Virginia opened her eyes and pressed her hand to her head with a little groan. As she felt the blood and looked at her hand with blood on it she gave a little gasp and fainted.

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Chapter 20 - A Frightening Night Walk
Madge's first thought was to sound the horn to alert Eva and Jem whose lights were now well out of sight. But as she firmly pressed the horn in the centre of the steering wheel, she was dismayed to hear only silence. Her next movement was to get out and hurry round to Virginia's side to inspect the child's injury. But the passenger door had somehow jammed and she couldn't reach inside, nor could she see in the shadow exactly how Virginia had hurt herself, so she hurried round and climbed back in the driver's side. Moving over as close as possible to the child she managed to stretch herself round in front of Virginia and was able to inspect the head wound which was on the corner of the forehead and still bleeding.

"Oh, why is Jem in the car and not here where I so need him?" she thought. But the immediate concern was to apply some sort of pressure bandage to Virginia's wound. Glancing wildly around the dim light of the interior of the truck, she realised that the only possibility was going to be using part of her own clothing. Remembering thankfully that she was wearing a light coat with buttons from collar to hem over a cotton blouse, Madge quickly shrugged off the coat, wriggled out of the blouse, put on the coat over her petticoat and skirt, quickly fastening the large buttons. She folded the blouse onto a small, tight pad and pressed it gently onto Virginia's forehead. As she paused to take stock of the situation, Madge realised if she had to hold it herself she could not use her hands for anything else.

"Now what can I use to hold it in place? Stockings! - of course." In a few moments the stockings had made an ideal bandage. "Surely Eva and Jem will realise that we're out of sight and come back to investigate," she thought. To Madge's relief Virginia turned her head as consciousness returned.

"It's all right, dear. You bumped your head and made it bleed when the truck stopped and I have put a bandage on it," Madge reassured the child.

"Oh yes, I remember what happened. We hit something. Mummy should be back soon to see where we have got to, I think. My forehead hurts."

But as the minutes dragged by and Virginia, with closed eyes, rested her aching head on the door, Madge realised with growing dismay that something had happened to delay them. Wild ideas of attracting attention by starting a small fire were quickly banished by the vivid memory of the raging bushfire she had watched on Christmas afternoon. Clearly, summer in Australia was not the time to start a fire - especially in thick bush! After a few more moments of increasing anxiety about Virginia's wound, Madge could stand the wait and uncertainty no longer.

"Listen, Virginia, I am going down the road a short way to call for help. I want you to stay here and sit still in case you feel dizzy when you stand up," commanded Madge.

"We're not far away from Uncle Kelvin's paddock where we left them, but I don't know if they'll be able to hear you because there's a hill," Virginia said doubtfully.

Madge carefully walked a few paces along the dark track in the faltering beam of the headlights she had left on to light the way. Rustlings in the thick branches as well as the undergrowth around her suggested unknown creatures of the night... what if she encountered another snake? Madge's heart thumped in fear. She coo-eed at the top of her voice. The sound echoed amongst the rocks and trees to die away into brooding stillness and she strained her ears to hear a reply. After a few tense minutes, Madge realised the others were indeed out of earshot. She turned to walk quickly back to the truck, only to find the feeble glow from the lights signified an almost flat battery. Madge picked her way gingerly along the dark track, praying the glow of the headlights would not die completely before she could reach the truck. she stopped dead.

Something was watching her - she could feel it! Desperately controlling the urge to run, Madge carefully peered into the darkness all around her. Suddenly a movement in front of some bushes revealed the black and white head of a cow, solemnly regarding her! Madge gasped, then almost laughed with relief.

She had almost reached the truck when there came the sound of voices and behind the steady glow of torch light two men appeared striding down the track on which she had driven. She could not make out the faces. Were these the cattle thieves? Were they dangerous men? What about Virginia, hurt in the truck? Before Madge could make up her mind what to do, Virginia, hearing the voices and attracted by the light, stuck her head out of the truck. As the men came up to the vehicle she called out,

"G'day, Mr Anderson. Hello, Mr Gunn. Are you looking for the cattle duffers? Daddy and Keith found them and went after them."

Madge realised they were the men she had met only that morning. Explanations on both sides were soon given and the two men, who were indeed on the lookout for the cattle thieves, shone their torch light on the damaged tyre.

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Chapter 21 - Capturing the Cattle Duffers
Just at that moment, the sound of raised voices came to them. Jim Gunn's powerful torch beam swung round as the nearby fence wire gave a loud twang followed by an exclamation of pain. The light revealed a panting youngster with part of the seat of his blue dungarees left behind on the barbed wire. He looked thunderstruck at the sight of the welcoming party. In two strides Clive Anderson grabbed his arm but before he could say anything, Keith appeared at the fence, breathing heavily with another young captive whose wrists were bound behind him by Claud's stockwhip. Jim held the fence wires apart as the two bent down and climbed through.

"Got them! Good on yer, Keith!" exclaimed Clive with great satisfaction.

"You two Welsh boys sit down by that tree," Jim Gunn told them. "We'll be taking you in to the police station when we get our transport sorted out." As he spoke, he took off his belt and tied up the first boy's wrists.

"But where's Daddy?" inquired Virginia who had been watching with great interest from the truck.

"He's getting some first aid from our resident doctor and Mum!"

"Oh! What's happened to him, Keith?" cried his sister anxiously, as she hung out of the truck window.

"Cut his leg a bit - what have you done to your head, Jinny?" Between them, she and Madge described their adventure and when Madge mentioned her coo-ee, Keith interrupted to say,

"We'd never have heard you. There's a heavily timbered ridge between the Three Mile Track here and that paddock. We came round the edge of it to get here. You could yell out all you like and you'd never be heard where we were. If you'd been able to drive about a mile further you'd have come into clear country and quickly joined up with where you left us."

"But Keith, what about Dad?" persisted Virginia.

"I'll tell you the whole story. We got onto these two soon after we left you, because when they ran away they came to grief over a log in the dark. Thankfully they managed to run towards the cattle and that helped drive the beasts even further from the cut in the fence. We grabbed both of them and were taking them back to the road to meet up with the Holden. Dad had just finished threatening to wrap the whip around their legs if they tried to get away, when he managed to put his foot into a roll of barbed wire which Uncle Kelvin had very helpfully left near the fence! So I managed to grab Dad just in time to stop him joining the dropsy club like the other two -" (Virginia gave a shout of laughter at this description.)

"- and it was a blessing I did stop him falling because all that barbed wire would have made a nice mess of him! Of course in the confusion over Dad's leg these two beauties absconded again. Fortunately the doctor and Mum were waiting at the cut in the fence and they took Dad off to treat him as soon as they saw what happened. I grabbed the stockwhip and went after our escapees. I managed to nab one as he couldn't go fast without a torch. I trussed him up with the whip and the other one kept going until he came to this fence."

"So that's what stopped Mum from coming back to find out where we were!" said Virginia.

"Oh yes, she'd only just driven up when Dad connected with the wire so everyone was tied up good and proper at that point. They would have had to shine the car headlights on to the fence so Dad could do a temporary job of re-stringing the wires, too - oh yes, I nearly forgot - they've got Welsh senior in the back of the Holden. Now you tell me - what on earth happened with this truck?"

Before Virginia or Madge could answer, Jim Gunn pointed his torch beam at the torn tyre. "The jolt on that made your sister cut her head," he said succinctly.

"Well I guess between us we'll soon be able to change that tyre," remarked Keith. "But I'll turn off the headlights or the truck won't be going anywhere tonight," he added, suiting action to word. The three men straightened up as the sound of a vehicle was heard and shortly the Henderson Station wagon drew up and Jem and Eva anxiously hurried over to the group, while Claud and Sid Welsh peered out the open windows. Exclamations and explanations took up the next twenty minutes or so and Jem quickly examined Virginia, anxiously watched by Eva.

"I am fairly certain it's just a surface contusion - a straight forward bump," announced Jem. "The bleeding is almost finished now, but one thing is sure, this blouse of yours will never be fit for anything again, Madge. Still, you did the right thing with your bandaging."

In a few more minutes the damaged wheel was replaced with the spare and the three Welshes were put into the back of the cattle truck.

"I'll take this little lot into the police station. Sergeant Blake won't be thrilled at being woken up at this time of night, but I think when he hears the story he'll be only too happy to tuck these Welshes into bed in his little lock up." Jim Gunn chuckled, then added, "Keith, if you could squeeze Clive into the Holden and drop him at his gate where he left his ute, that'd be handy." With that the Bush Fire Chief managed to start the engine and drove off slowly.

The Hendersons and Russells along with Clive Anderson, arranged themselves in the Holden and Keith drove off carefully. As they pulled up at the gate to Clive's property, he walked round to Claud's window and said,

"You rest up that leg of yours tomorrer, mate. Me and Jim'll pop out here in the mornin' and see to that fence. We'll check those cattle are hunky-dory as well. If Kelvin hasn't branded his calves yet, Sid Welsh was prob'ly after any clean skins so he could put his own brand on them."

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Chapter 22 - Chalet School in the Bush?
"I think we've had quite enough excitements for one night," declared Claud as the Russells and Hendersons sat over a final cup of tea in the kitchen before going to bed. "And you are going to have a good rest tomorrow, Madge. We can't have you needing a rest cure when you get back to Sydney."

"I won't be sorry for another long sleep," replied Madge with a laugh. "But I feel fully recovered from my 'flu. The air is so clean and fresh up here on the Tablelands. Apart from seeing the family again, I'll be rather sorry to have to go back to Sydney." She paused to stroke the silky, black fur of Zebedee who had condescended to be picked up. Jem was tickling Jiminy Cricket's ears and the two dogs were sprawled nearby.

Madge continued, "It has been the most exciting Christmas! When we knew we were coming up here, I had no idea we would be doing and seeing so many exciting things - things we could never have imagined. We would really like to thank you so much for your wonderful hospitality and friendliness. We so much appreciate it."

"Yes," agreed Jem. "You have been more than kind, taking in complete strangers and making us feel so much at home with you all - we feel as if we have been friends for years. We have learned so much about Australia and Australians being here, but especially about the New England Tablelands."

"Special emphasis being on snakes, fires and cattle duffers," interposed Keith dryly. The Russells laughed and Eva exclaimed,

"Goodness me! You both speak as if you are going back to Sydney tomorrow! You have several more days with us and who knows what adventures you might have in them?"

"We have loved having you both," said Claud. "You certainly do feel like old friends. We wish you could come again and stay with us and bring that family of yours."

Virginia had the last word.

"I think you ought to start another Chalet School somewhere in Australia - or best of all - up here in the Bush!" she announced firmly.

The End

Esther V. Hailey