She was a tall, angular girl of about sixteen, dressed in faded blue dungaree—the thick, strong cotton material of which men's working clothes are made in the Bush. Her blouse was a man's jumper, the collar sagging open, showing her brown throat: her skirt, home-made, and ornamented with patches of varying size and different shades of blue, was short enough to reveal lean legs, and feet shod with men's blucher boots. On her head was a battered old black felt hat, from holes in which short wisps of yellow hair protruded oddly. Garth remarked later that you couldn't see much of her face for freckles: but somehow, when you had looked at her face you did not trouble about her clothes. For it was a pleasant face, shrewd and merry, if not at all beautiful. She had a wide mouth, showing perfect white teeth; a snub nose; and twinkling little grey eyes that were very cheery and friendly. The powdering of freckles, covered her brown skin as far as could be seen; but when she pushed her hat back, her brow was startlingly white, and without a stain. She greeted them with a cheery smile, as they came up to the fence, though her manner had a touch of shyness.
"Hullo!" she said: and then, looking at Aileen: "You're Mrs. Macleod, aren't you?"
"Yes," said Aileen, smiling in return. They looked at each other across the fence.
"Me Dad sent me over," said the stranger. "I went to your place, an' your boy Horrors told me you'd gone this way. I thought I might cut you off at this lane, if I had luck."
"It was very nice of you to come," Aileen said, faintly puzzled, not knowing whether to regard this business-like young person as a caller. She certainly did not look like an ordinary caller: but to Aileen all things were possible in the Bush. "Will you tell me your name?"
"Me?" said the girl. "Oh, I'm 'Possum."
"'Possum? But——"
"Me Dad always calls me that, so it's kind of stuck," said the owner of the name. "I b'lieve I got another, but it never seems to matter: it's Maggie or something." The puzzled faces before her seemed to demand further explanation. "Mr. O'Connor's me Dad," she added.
"'Mr. O'Connor's me dad,' she added."