Page 48 - An Australian Lassie

CHAPTER XII

BETTY TN THE LTON'S DEN

So that it was John who showed Betty the thing in all its beauty. Tt was he, who, so to speak, called her to the
mountain top, and pointed out to her the cities of the world to be climbed above. And it seemed to little
independent-hearted Betty to be the most glorious thing in the world to climb upon one's own feet, pulling
oneself upwards with one's own hands.

She wondered how she could have ever wanted such a very ordinary happening as for her grandfather to adopt
them and give them his money. Here was this wonderful John Brown actually longing to give up her
grandfather--his grandfather. For he had soon convinced her that Captain Carew was his grandfather too, and
while allowing that he might be hers, he showed her how very little in the eyes of the world her relationship
counted for. He, he said, was the son of his grandfather's eldest son--that their names were different was solely
owing to the fact that his father had changed his name for private reasons. She and Cyril and all the rest of
them were merely the children of his grandfather's daughter. And, as he impressed upon Betty, women didn't
count for much in the world's eyes.

Yet Betty was very earnest in her intention to be something great--something self-made, and John was willing
enough not to stand in her way. He himself was going to start at once; he was not going to waste any more
time over going to school and doing lessons. He pointed to his grandfather as a fine example of a man who
had risen because he had not wasted time in learning. He told Betty they could not begin their "career" too
early.

Tt was Betty who suggested waiting till the Christmas holidays, and it was John who said--

"Perhaps you'd better wait till the next Christmas. T will have got a bit of a start by then and will be able to
help you."

But Betty was indignant at that.

"T won't be helped!" she said. "T won't be helped by you, John Brown. Stay at home till Christmas
yourself--T'm going now!"

Her career had to be decided upon, and very little time remained in which to decide. John intended beginning
life as an errand boy. Tn his spare time, he said, he would go on with his drawing, and if an opportunity
occurred, he would work his passage out somewhere in some ship. He was rather vague about all but the
errand running; that he saw to be the first step towards greatness.

Betty was not long before she decided he was keeping some part of his design from her. And every afternoon
when they had left school and each other, she was nervous lest he should have gone by morning--gone and left
her to find her way into the world alone!

And here was she unable to decide upon her career! She even asked questions about Joan of Arc and Grace
Darling, and set herself to find out if there were any other women in the history book.

"Tt isn't fair!" she said at last to the thoughtful John Brown. "You'd never have known about being an errand
boy and an artist only for your books. You've got a lot of books to help you."

But John told her how he had been decided upon his "career" all his life, ever since his father had left him
alone on the station in the country which time was, as the reader will be aware, situated somewhere about his
first birthday. But he magnanimously proposed to place his grandfather's library at her feet, or rather to place