Boo, hoo, hoo!
They're keepin' it secret from you. Boo, hoo. She's gone to the
picnic, and she's run away from school."
CHAPTER XIII Uninvited Guests
The captain was walking slowly across the paddocks with the cabbage-tree
hat he kept for the garden pushed back from his brow. He was rather
heated after his tussle with his second son, and there was a thoughtful
light in his eyes. He did not believe the truth of Bunty's final
remark, but still he considered there was sufficient probability in it
to make a visit to the shed not altogether superfluous.
Not that he expected, in any case, to find his errant daughter there,
for had not Bunty said there was a picnic down at the river? But he
thought, there might be some trace or other.
The door of the shed swung back on its crazy hinges, and the sunlight
streamed in and made a bar of glorified dust across the place.
There was no sign of habitation here, unless a hair ribbon of Meg's
and some orange peel, might be considered as such.
He saw the shaky, home-made ladder, resting against the hole in the
ceiling, and though he had generally more respect for his neck than
his children had for theirs, he ventured his safety upon it.
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