The only persons to whom the rain had not brought joy and gladness were Freeman Brothers. These worthy yeomen began to consider that after all this hard work, as they expressed it, they had been shamefully outwitted and deceived. The travel-worn cattle-dealer, who had driven so hard a bargain with them, had turned out to be the great Abstinens Levison, no less. Their stock had been handed over to Mr. Neuchamp, with whom, doubtless, he had been in league. Now they were growing and fattening fast, prices rising faster, and not a shilling for _them_, out of it all. Then they had to wait idle on their land till November, or less lose the cash agreed on. ‘Then to hand everything over—most likely for the benefit of a young fellow who knew nothing about the country—a —— blessed “new chum”—hang him. The country was getting too full of the likes of him. It was enough to make a man turn digger.‘ Abraham Freeman and his wife were the only contented individuals of the once peaceful co-operative community. They would have secured sufficient capital upon the payment of the coming instalments to purchase a well-improved farm in their old neighbourhood, to which they proposed immediately to return, and there spend the remainder of an unambitious existence. ‘They had seen quite enough of this far-out life,’ they said. ‘Free-selecting here might be very well for some people; it didn’t suit them. They liked a quiet place in a cool climate, where the crops grew, and the cows gave them milk all the year round—not a feast or a famine. If they had the chance, please God, they would know _next time_ when they were well off.’ One afternoon Charley Banks came tearing in, displaying in triumph a provincial journal, the _Parramatta Postboy_, directed to him in unknown handwriting. Pointing to a column, headed ‘Elopement extraordinary,’ he commenced with great difficulty, owing to the frequency of his ejaculations and bursts of laughter, to read aloud to Mr. Neuchamp the following extract, from which it may be gathered that Mr. Windsor ‘was on time,’ in spite of all apparent obstacles: