On The Beach

"Good night," he said a little thickly. She drove off. He stood watching her until the buggy turned a corner and was out of sight.

It was ten o'clock at night when she drove into the yard outside the homestead. Her father heard the horse and came out in the darkness to help her unharness and put the buggy in the shed. In the dim light as they eased the vehicle back under cover, she said, "I asked Dwight Towers down here for a couple of days. He's coming on Tuesday."

"Coming here?" he asked, surprised.

"Yes. They've got leave before they go off on some other trip. You don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not. I hope it's not going to be dull for him, though. What are you going to do with him all day?"

"I told him he could drive the bullock round the paddocks. He's very practical."

"I could do with somebody to help feed out the silage," her father said.

"Well, I expect he could do that. After all, if he commands a nuclear-powered submarine he ought to be able to learn to shovel silage."

They went into the house. Later that night he told her mother about their visitor. She was properly impressed. "Do you think there's anything in it?"

"I don't know," he said. "She must like him all right."

"She hasn't had a man to stay since that Forrest boy, before the war."

He nodded. "I remember. Never thought much of him. I'm glad that came to an end."

"It was his Austin-Healey," her mother remarked. "I don't think she ever cared for him, not really."

"This one's got a submarine," her father said helpfully. "It's probably the same thing."

"He can't take her down the road in that at ninety miles an hour." She paused, and then she said, "Of course, he must be a widower now."

He nodded. "Everybody says that he's a very decent sort of chap."

Her mother said, "I do hope something comes of it. I would like to see her settled down, and happily married with some children."

"She'll have to be quick about it, if you're going to see that," remarked her father.

"Oh dear, I keep forgetting. But you know what I mean."

He came to her on Tuesday afternoon; she met him with the horse and buggy. He got out of the train and looked around, sniffing the warm country air. "Say," he said, "you've got some pretty nice country around here. Which way is your place?"

She pointed to the north. "Over there, about three miles."

"Up on that range of hills?"

"Not right up," she said. "Just a bit of the way up."

He was carrying a suitcase, and swung it up into the buggy, pushing it under the seat. "Is that all you've got?" she demanded.

"That's right. It's full of mending."

"It doesn't look much. I'm sure you must have more than that."

"I haven't. I brought everything there was. Honest."

"I hope you're telling me the truth." They got up into the driving seat and started off towards the village. Almost immediately he said, "That's a beech tree! There's another!"

She glanced at him curiously. "They grow round here. I suppose it's cooler on the hills."

He looked at the avenue, entranced. "That's an oak tree, but it's a mighty big one. I don't know that I ever saw an oak tree grow so big. And there's some maples!" He turned to her. "Say, this is just like an avenue in a small town in the States!"

"Is it?" she asked. "Is it like this in the States?"

"It certainly is," he said. "You've got all the trees here from the Northern Hemisphere. Parts of Australia I've seen up till now, they've only had gum trees and wattles."

"They don't make you feel bad?" she asked.

"Why, no. I just love to see these northern trees again."

"There are plenty of them round the farm," she said. They drove through the village, across the deserted bitumen road, and out upon the road to Harka-way. Presently the road trended uphill; the horse slowed to a walk and began to slog against the collar. The girl said, "This is where we get out and walk."

He got down with her from the buggy, and they walked together up the hill, leading the horse. After the stuffiness of the dockyard and the heat of the steel ships, the woodland air seemed fresh and cool to him. He took off his jacket and laid it in the buggy, and loosened the collar of his shirt. They walked on up the hill, and now a panorama started to unfold behind them, a wide view over the flat plain to the sea at Port Phillip Bay ten miles away. They went on, riding on the flats and walking on the steeper parts, for half an hour. Gradually they entered a country of gracious farms on undulating hilly slopes, a place where well-kept paddocks were interspersed with coppices and many trees. He said, "You're mighty lucky to have a home in country like this."

She glanced at him. "We like it all right. Of course, it's frightfully dull living out here."

He stopped, and stood in the road, looking around him at the smiling countryside, the wide, unfettered views. "I don't know that I ever saw a place that was more beautiful," he said.

"It is beautiful?" she asked. "I mean, is it as beautiful as places in America or England?"