Somehow, he found it difficult not
to think of them all as his children. Wally had made an attempt to go
away and set up a place for himself, but the idea had been received with
such amazed horror by the whole household that it had been temporarily
shelved. After all, Wally had more money than was good for him, the
result of having always been an orphan. He could establish himself in a
place at any time if he wished. And meanwhile, he was never idle. David
Linton had handed over most of the outside management of the big run
to Jim and his mate. They worked together as happily as they had played
together as boys. There was time for play now, as well; Mr. Linton saw
to that. The years that they had left on Flanders fields were not to rob
them of their boyhood.
There had also been time to help the Rainhams--and there again the
district had taken a hand. It was not to be imagined that the people
who had helped in the first working bee would sit calmly by when so
stupendous a piece of bad luck as the New Year fire overtook the just
established young immigrants; and so there had been several other bees,
to replace Bob's burnt fencing, to clear away the ruins of the house and
sheds, and, finally, to rebuild for him. There had been long discussions
at Billabong over plans--the first Creek Cottage had taught them much
of what was desirable in the way of a house; so that the second Creek
Cottage, which rose from the ashes of the old one when kindly rains had
drawn a green mantle over all the blackened farm, was a very decided
improvement upon the old house, and contained so many modern ideas and
"dodges" that the wives and sisters of all the working bees, who helped
to build it, came miles to see it, and went home, in most cases, audibly
wishing that they could have a fire.
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