Back To Billabong, page 129 by Mary Grant Bruce
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Monarch and Garryowen, and Bosun, and the buggy ponies, looked placidly from their loose boxes, and asked for--and got--apples from Jim's pockets. Tommy even made her way up the steep ladder to the loft that ran the whole length of the stables--big enough for the men's yearly dance, but just now crammed with fragrant oaten hay. She wanted to see everything, and chatted away in her eager, half- French fashion, like a happy child.
"It is so lovely to be here," she told Norah later, when the keen evening wind had driven them indoors from a tour of the garden. She was kneeling on the floor of her bedroom, unpacking her trunk, while Norah perched on the end of the bed. "You see, I am no longer afraid; and I have always been afraid since Aunt Margaret died. In Lancaster Gate I was afraid all the time, especially when I was planning to run away. Then, on the ship, though every one was so kind, the big, unknown country was like a wall of Fear ahead; even in Melbourne everything seemed uncertain, doubtful. But now, quite suddenly, it is all right. I just know we shall get along quite well."
"Why, of course you will," Norah said, laughing down at the earnest face. "You're the kind of people who must do well, because you are so keen. And Billabong has adopted you, and we're going to see that you make a success of things. You're our very own immigrants!"
"It's nice to be owned by some one who isn't my step-mother," said Tommy happily. "I began to think I was hers, body and soul--when she appeared on that awful moment in Liverpool. I made sure all hope was over. Bob says I shouldn't have panicked, but then Bob had not been a toad under her harrow for two years."
"I'm very glad you panicked, since it sent you straight into our arms," said Norah. "If we had met you in an ordinary, stodgy way-- you and Bob presenting your letter of introduction, and we saying 'How do you do?' politely--it would have taken us ages to get to know you properly. And as it was, we jumped into being friends. You did look su