To this sympathetic friend did George now confide the tale of the crisis of his long dispute with his father, to which Terence, anxious to secure a congenial companion during his long rides through the bush, replied by an earnest appeal to George to throw in his lot with his own. As a matter of fact, there had been a terrible scene at 'Sobraon.' For two years Colonel Haughton had fumed and fretted at his son's evident disinclination to follow the path marked out for him, and to-day a climax had been reached. The colonel, enraged at George's invincible opposition, had lost command of himself and struck his son; and the way in which it all came about was this: After the famous battle of Sobraon, in which he was severely wounded, Colonel Haughton had retired from the army and bought a beautiful property on the wooded heights of one of the tiny bays which break the noble outline of Sydney Harbour. Here he had settled with his wife and his son, George, then a burly little fellow of three, whose obvious destiny was the army, in which his father had served with such distinction. But after the lad's tenth birthday the colonel's views underwent a change, and it was decided to send the youngster into the bush, so that he might grow familiar with station life, and in due course become capable of managing the fine run which his father intended to purchase for him. This was much more to George's taste than school, and six months with his father's old friend, Major Moore, went far towards making a thorough little bushman of him. Terence and he were already chums, and the constant association which continued during their youth cemented a friendship which endured throughout their lives. The colonel's 'system,' thus inaugurated, was further developed by a visit to New Zealand, where George's uncle, Captain Haughton, R.N., retired, had settled some years before. Thereafter Colonel Haughton divided each successive year into four parts, every three months of study alternating with a like period in the bush, either with Major Moore in New South Wales, or with Captain Haughton in New Zealand, as the turn of each came round. Brain and body developed most satisfactorily under this system, and, as a natural consequence of so much healthy outdoor life, George at nineteen was as sturdy and well-developed a youngster as could be found, while in height he already over-topped his father, who stood five feet eleven outside his boots. The boy's future seemed splendidly assured, when a season of drought, common enough in Australia, frightened the colonel, and, after much deliberation, he astounded everybody by declaring his intention to launch his son in business.