Back To Billabong, page 119 by Mary Grant Bruce
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in a shout as they swung in through the gateway. "Good for you, Murty! Hurroo!"
"Hurroo for ye all!" said Murty, and found to his amazement that his voice was shaky. "Ah, don't shtop, sir, they're all waitin' on ye. I'll be up as soon as ye."
Norah had tried to speak, and had found that she had no voice at all. She could only smile at him, tremulously--and be sure the Irishman did not fail to catch the smile. Then, as they dashed up the paddock, her hand sought for her father's knee under the rug, in the little gesture that had been hers from babyhood. The track curved round a grove of great pines, and suddenly they were within sight of Billabong homestead, red-walled and red-roofed, nestled in the deep green of its trees.
"By Jove!" said Jim, under his breath. "I thought once I'd never see the old place again."
They flashed through mighty red gums and box trees, Murty galloping beside them now. There was a big flag flying proudly on Billabong house--they found later that the household had unanimously purchased it on the day they heard that Jim had got his captaincy. The gate of the great sanded yard stood open, and near it, on a wide gravel sweep, were the dear and simple and faithful people they loved. Mrs. Brown first, starched and spotless, her hair greyer than it had been five years before, with Sarah and Mary beside her--they had married during the war, but nothing had prevented them from coming back to make Billabong ready. Near them the storekeeper, Jack Archdale, and his pretty wife, with their elfish small daughter; and Mick Shanahan and Dave Boone, with the Scotch gardener, Hogg, and his Chinese colleague--and sworn enemy-- Lee Wing. They were all there, a little welcoming group--but Norah could see them only through a mist of happy tears. The buggy stopped, and Evans sprang out over the wheel; she followed him almost as swiftly, running to the old woman who had been all the mother she had known.
"Oh, Brownie--Brownie!"
"My precious lamb!" said Brownie, and hel