They Found a Cave by Nan Chauncy

would never lie flat nodding at each sturdy forward step. He was curiously draped about with a milking-pail and a strainer, and the blanket he carried was worn like a kilt in folds beneath his belt. Trotting behind him came Nippy, revolving all the time like a top in order to make sure at every step that his Fluffles was really following him, and clanking and jangling whenever he turned.
    Nigel and Tas followed more soberly behind. The lean length of Tas was hung like a warrior with tools and an axe, while the broad shoulders of Nigel carried a man’s load. He paused, and his teeth looked extra white as he grinned up at Cherry. ‘“Look” did you say, Cherry?’ he asked. ‘It’s “listen to us” you mean. Wouldn’t the row we make rouse anyone but Ma down there, swilling and guzzling so much she can’t hear.’
    They rested a few moments, and stared down at the Homestead still basking peacefully in the sunshine.
    â€˜I rather wish she would come out, don’t you?’
    â€˜Not yet,’ said Tas. ‘We don’t want them to find what’s still “planted” in Hollow Tree.’
    â€˜No,’ said Brick with authority, ‘but Ma won’t come out. She won’t be looking for us just yet.’
    â€˜Why not? How do you know?’ Cherry demanded, looking suspiciously at his happy face. ‘What have you been up to, Brick?’
    â€˜Nothing. I only…well, you know how she piles in the sugar in her tea? I just added a spoonful of Epsom salts, as a present from Nippy “with love and kisses”. Now, come on, Nig. Let’s sing as we go. Let’s sing as long as we have any breath left. I feel sort of happy. ’
    â€˜Gosh,’ protested Tas, ‘ must you? Oh, all right, then. At least that’ll scare Ma worse than anything. It’ll upset her worse than salts if she do hear…’ He ducked to avoid a shower of bark and twigs thrown at him from all sides.
    The line of the baggage train swung forward to the music of an old chorus, and the sound was caught and tossed by the echoes of the mountains, together with the faint jangling notes of the goats’ bells far in front.

6
Capra Cave Becomes a Home
    Cherry arrived first. The goats, led by Lily, were quick in scaling the last of the rough climb; it was all she could do to keep them in sight. However, when at last her head popped over the ridge, there they were, nibbling the scrub round the tarn as though they were perfectly at home.
    â€˜But I feel a bit like that myself,’ thought Cherry, as she gazed round happily at the now familiar line of open caves, the rugged rocks, and the hollow which held the reedy tarn, and away to the outline of far ranges. ‘We seem to—to sort of belong. ’ No contradiction came to her diffident whisper, only the warm welcome of the sun at noon, and the slight stirring of spring in the bush.
    She eased her shoulders and had a drink of tarn water, before carrying her load into Capra Cave. It looked just as they had left it. She felt it queer to be standing alone in this small, cool world, wedged above an immense space of tree tops and blue sky. It was queer to walk that stone floor and plan a sleeping place where only a bushranger had slept before; most queer of all to look out and see far below the Homestead, as unimportant and unreal now as if made of empty matchboxes.
    Cherry would have liked to linger on, enjoying the first thrill of the escape, but a head coming into view far down the track reminded her of home-making activities yet to be done. The holes Nippy called ‘shelves’, she had decided, would make a safe dairy. She tied gum leaves to a stick and swept them free from dirt and loose sand. She had just begun to sweep the whole floor in the same way when she heard a shout and ran to look out.
    â€˜How are things, Cherry?’ called Nigel.
    â€˜Quite all right, thanks. The little ladies