“Mother!” ejaculated Ralph Thornton, clasping the small mistress of the homestead in his arms.

“Ralph! Oh, Ralph, I am glad you are here,” she said, looking up with proud, wistful eyes.

For a moment he held her, more like a lover than a son and, during that moment, it flashed into her mind that if he had known his maternal parentage he would not have held her thus. How glad she was that she had been firm in her insistence that the knowledge must be withheld.

“You must be tired, Katie,” the squatter said gently to the girl. “It’s been a hot day.”

“Has it, Uncle?” Her voice was sweetly allied to her fresh beauty. “I’ve been too excited meeting Ralph to notice it. Don’t you think he has grown?”

“I haven’t had much chance to notice anything yet,” he replied, with twinkling eyes.

“Notice now, Dad,” the young man commanded, his face flushed with happiness, reaching for his foster-father’s hand. “Ideclare, both you and the Little Lady look younger than ever. And as for Kate-she just takes a fellow’s breath away!” Then, seeing the bookkeeper hovering behind, he exclaimed, going to him: “Hallo, Mortimore, how are you?”

“I do not look nor do I feel any younger, Mr Ralph,” the bookkeeper countered. “When I first saw you, ten years ago, you were make-believing you were playing the piano on the office typewriter. And now! It seems but yesterday.”

“That is all it is, too. You are mistaken about the ten years,” the young man said, with a happy smile. Then, returning to his mother, he took her on his right arm and caught the squatter on his left, the last, in turn attaching Kate Flinders; and so aligned, the reunited family slowly returned to the house.

From Brewarrina to Wentworth and from Ivanhoe to Tibooburra the two women of Barrakee were famous.