“Too soon to ask me—and I've only seen Billabong,” she said, laughing. “Wait until I've kept house for Bob for a while, and faced life without nice soft buffers like Norah and Mrs. Brown!”
“I'm not a nice soft buffer!” said Norah indignantly. “Do I look like one, Jimmy?”
“Brownie certainly fits the description better,” Jim said. “Never mind, old girl, you'll probably grow into one. We'd be awfully proud of you if you got really fat, Norah.”
“Then I hope you'll never have cause for pride,” retorted his sister. “I couldn't ride Bosun if I did, and that would be too awful to think about. Oh, and Tommy's making a great stock-rider, Bob. She declared she could never ride astride, but she's perceiving the error of her ways.”
“I thought I could never stick on without the moral support of the pommels,” said Tommy. “When you arrange yourself among pommels and horns and things on a side-saddle, there seems no real reason why you should ever come off, except of your own free will. But a man's saddle doesn't offer any encouragement to a poor scared new-chum. I pictured myself sliding off it whenever the horse side-stepped. However, somehow, it doesn't happen.”
“And what happens when your steed slews around after a bullock?” asked Jim.
“Indeed, I hardly know,” said Tommy modestly. “I generally shut my eyes, and hold on to the front of the saddle. After a while I open them, and find, to my astonishment, that nothing has occurred, and I'm still there. Then we sail along after Norah, and I hold up my head proudly and look as if that were really the way I have always handled cattle. And she isn't a bit taken in. It's dreadfully difficult to impress Norah.”
Every one laughed, and looked at the new-chum affectionately. This small English girl, so ready to laugh at her own mistakes, had twined herself wonderfully about their hearts. Even Brownie, jealous to the point of prickliness for her adored Norah, and at first inclined to turn up a scornful nose at “Miss Tommy's” pink and white daintiness, had been forced to admit that she “could 'andle things like a workman.” And that was high praise from Brownie.
The telephone bell whirred in the hall, and Jim went out to answer it. In a few minutes they heard his voice.
“Norah, just come here a moment.” He came back presently, leaving Norah at the telephone.