Seven Little Australians

y Desc

story I should like to give

you had better lay down the book immediately and betake yourself to 'Sandford and Merton' or similar standard juv

nd Asia, the little folks may be parag

d is-I say it not without tha

tmosphere. It may be that the land and the people are young-hearted together, and the ch

ness and rebellion and mischief in n

vives play-days and school-days, circumstances alone determine whether the electric sparkle shall go to play will-o'-the-wi

sent moment with a minimum of comfort and a maximum of noise, so if you can bear a deafening babel of voic

veneration on the part of the latter. So even in the most wealthy families it seldom happens that the parents dine in solemn state alone, while the children are having a

even children with excellent lungs and tireless tongues, what c

ick felt put over the swing door upstairs, but the noise used to floa

good-natured girl, who was supposed to combine the duties of nursery-maid and housemaid, had so much to do in her second capacity that the first suffered considerably. She used to lay the

ther?

ery little more of a housekeeper than Meg. Only the youngest of the brood was hers, but she seemed just as fond of the o

erent one painted above the balcony-that baby seemed a gigantic joke to everyone. The Captain ge

elisse on wet days, muffled it up when it was hot, gave it the most astounding things to eat, and

s this the General?" when the little, red, staring-eyed morsel had been put into his arms, and the name had come into d

th pretty cuddlesome ways, great smiling eyes, an

ts tiny arms, or pulling its innocent nose, just for the strange pleasure of hearing the yells of despair it instantly set up. Captain Woolcot ascribed the peculiar tendency to the fact that the child had once had a d

saying something was wanted he would have utterly disappeared. He was rather small for his age;-and I don't think had ever been seen with a clean face. Even at church, though

Nell, and then reproduced the vision imperfectly. She was ten, and had a little fairy-like figure, gold hair clustering in wonderful waves and curls around her face, soft hazel eyes, and a little rosebud of a mouth. She was not conceited either, her fa

dom looked picturesque. If she did not dash madly to the place she wished to get to, she would progress by a series of jumps, bounds, and odd little skips. She was very thin, as people generally are who have

equently, and upbraid her for suggesting the mischief. She had been christened "Helen," which in no way account's for "Judy," but then nicknames are rather unaccountable things sometimes, are they not? Bunty said it was because she was always popping and je

nly handsomer and taller, and he was fourteen, and had as good an opinion

y used to delight in pulling; a sweet, rather dreamy face, and a powde

tin hat-box. Their father, had you asked them they would all have replied with considerable pride, was "a military man," and much from home. He did not understand children at all, and was always

oarding school when he brought home his you

rs rose in revolt at the pranks of those graceless children, so Captain Woolcot took a house some

ck at Misrule; so, to make up, the children-not that they cared in the slightest-went about in shabby, out-at-elbow clothes, and much-worn boots. They were taught-all but Pip, who went to the grammar school-by a very third-class daily governess, who li