Page 46 - A Little Bush Maid

"No; T kept on stroking its back as it went over my knees, without the least
idea that it was anything dangerous. Dad said it seemed years and years

before it went right over and crawled away from me into the grass. He had
me out of the way in about half a second, and got a stick, and T cried like

anything when he killed it, and said he was naughty!"

"Tf you chaps have finished swopping snake yarns," said Jim, turning in his

saddle, "there’s Anglers’ Bend."

They had been riding steadily across the plain, until they had again come
near the scrub-line which marked the course of the creek. Following the
direction pointed by Jim’s finger, they saw a deep curve in the green, where

the creek suddenly left the fairly straight course it had been pursuing and
made two great bends something like a capital U, the points of which lay in

their direction. They rode down between them until they were almost at the
water’s edge.

Here the creek was very deep, and in sweeping round had cut out a wide
bed, nearly three times its usual breadth. Tall trees grew almost to the verge

of the banks on both sides, so that the water was almost always in shadow,
while so high were the banks that few breezes were able to ripple its
surface. Tt lay placid all the year, scarcely troubled even in winter, when the

other parts of the creek rushed and tumbled in flood. There was room in the
high banks of Anglers’ Bend for all the extra water, and its presence was

only marked by the strength of the current that ran in the very centre of the
stream.

Just now the water was not high, and seemed very far below the children,
who sat looking at it from their ponies on the bank. As they watched in

silence a fish leaped in the middle of the Bend. The sudden movement
seemed amazing in the stillness. Tt flashed for an instant in a patch of
sunlight, and then fell back, sending circling ripples spreading to each

bank.

"Good omen, T hope," Harry said, "though they often don’t bite when they
jump, you know."