Ah, it was pleasant beside the fire listening to the wind! When Dad had warmed himself back and front he turned to us and said: "Now, boys, we must go directly and light some fires and keep those wallabies back." That was a shock to us, and we looked at him to see if he were really in earnest.

He was, and as serious as a judge.
"TO-NIGHT!" Dave answered, surprisedly--"why to-night any more than last night or the night before?
Thought you had decided to let them rip ?" "Yes, but we might as well keep them off a bit longer." "But there's no wheat there for them to get now.

So what's the good of watching them?
There's no sense in THAT." Dad was immovable.
"Anyway"-- whined Joe--"I'M not going--not a night like this--not when I ain't got boots." That vexed Dad.

"Hold your tongue, sir!" he said--"you'll do as you're told." But Dave had n't finished.

"I've been following that harrow since sunrise this morning," he said, "and now you want me to go chasing wallabies about in the dark, a night like this, and for nothing else but to keep them from eating the ground.