A Little Bush Maid | Page 4

birthday, that it was time she
began the rudiments of learning. "Time enough yet--we don't want to
make a bookworm of her!"
Whereat nurse smiled demurely, knowing that that was the last thing to
be afraid of in connexion with her child. But she worried in her
responsible old soul all the same; and when a wet day or the occasional
absence of Mr. Linton left Norah without occupation, she induced her
to begin a few elementary lessons. The child was quick enough, and
soon learned to read fairly well and to write laboriously; but there

nurse's teaching from books ended.
Of other and practical teaching, however, she had a greater store. Mr.
Linton had a strong leaning towards the old-fashioned virtues, and it
was at a word from him that Norah had gone to the kitchen and asked
Mrs. Brown to teach her to cook. Mrs. Brown--fat, good-natured and
adoring--was all acquiescence, and by the time Norah was eleven she
knew more of cooking and general housekeeping than many girls
grown up and fancying themselves ready to undertake houses of their
own. Moreover, she could sew rather well, though she frankly detested
the accomplishment. The one form of work she cared for was knitting,
and it was her boast that her father wore only the socks she
manufactured for him.
Norah's one gentle passion was music. Never taught, she inherited from
her mother a natural instinct and an absolutely true ear, and before she
was seven she could strum on the old piano in a way very satisfying to
herself and awe-inspiring to the admiring nurse. Her talent increased
yearly, and at ten she could play anything she heard--from ear, for she
had never been taught a note of music. It was, indeed, her growing
capabilities in this respect that forced upon her father the need for
proper tuition for the child. However, a stopgap was found in the
person of the book-keeper, a young Englishman, who knew more of
music than accounts. He readily undertook Norah's instruction, and the
lessons bore moderately good effect--the moderation being due to a not
unnatural disinclination on the pupil's part to walk where she had been
accustomed to run, and to a fixed loathing to practice. As the latter
necessary, if uninteresting, pursuit was left entirely to her own
discretion--for no one ever dreamed of ordering Norah to the piano--it
is small wonder if it suffered beside the superior attractions of riding
Bobs, rat trapping, "shinning up" trees, fishing in the lagoon and
generally disporting herself as a maiden may whom conventional
restrictions have never trammelled.
It follows that the music lessons, twice a week, were times of woe for
Mr. Groom, the teacher. He was an earnest young man, with a sincere
desire for his pupil's improvement, and it was certainly disheartening to

find on Friday that the words of Tuesday had apparently gone in at one
ear and out at the other simultaneously. Sometimes he would
remonstrate.
"You haven't got on with that piece a bit!"
"What's the good?" the pupil would remark, twisting round on the
music stool; "I can play nearly all of it from ear!"
"That's not the same"--severely--"that's only frivolling. I'm not here to
teach you to strum."
"No" Norah would agree abstractedly. "Mr. Groom, you know that
poley bullock down in the far end paddock--"
"No, I don't," severely. "This is a music lesson, Norah; you're not after
cattle now!"
"Wish I were!" sighed the pupil. "Well, will you come out with the
dogs this afternoon?"
"Can't; I'm wanted in the office. Now, Norah--"
"But if I asked father to spare you?"
"Oh, I'd like to right enough." Mr. Groom was young, and the temptress,
if younger, was skilled in wiles.
"But your father--"
"Oh, I can manage Dad. I'll go and see him now." She would be at the
door before her teacher perceived that his opportunity was vanishing.
"Norah, come back! If I'm to go out, you must play this first--and get it
right."
Mr. Groom could be firm on occasions. "Come along, you little
shirker!" and Norah would unwillingly return to the music stool, and
worry laboriously though a page of the hated Czerny.

CHAPTER II

PETS AND PLAYTHINGS
After her father, Norah's chief companions were her pets.
These were a numerous and varied band, and required no small amount
of attention. Bobs, of course, came first--no other animal could
possibly approach him in favour. But after Bobs came a long
procession, beginning with Tait, the collie, and ending with the last
brood of fluffy Orpington chicks, or perhaps the newest thing in
disabled birds, picked up, fluttering and helpless, in the yard or orchard.
There was room in Norah's heart for them all.
Tait was a beauty--a rough-haired collie, with a splendid head,