Cameron picked it up, quite without suspicion—his cheque for the quarter, he supposed.
But the reading told him he was dismissed the service for his carelessness and the culpable neglect of his duties during the past four months.
CHAPTER V
Dunks' Selection
'Well, it is earth with me; Silence resumes her reign,
I will be patient and proud, and soberly acquiesce.'
'I shouldn't think it can be very much farther, dad,' said Bart.
'I believe we have passed it,' Hermie sighed; 'I am sure we have come much more than nine miles,' and she mopped her hot cheeks that the sun, burn as he would, had never freckled.
Cameron, the reins slack in his hand, looked doubtfully from side to side.
'It ought to be somewhere here,' he said; 'isn't that a fence at the top of the hill? Yes, I'm sure it is.' He touched the horse lightly with the switch that Floss held, and on they went again. They were in a borrowed broken-springed buggy, the five of them and Miss Browne, come out to see the home their father was buying—none of them, not even the father, had seen it yet.
For a couple of months after his dismissal Cameron had lingered on in the house in Wilgandra, too bewildered and helpless to know what to do.