They swung round bend after bend.  Gum and wattle trees bordered the water: and sometimes they came to a little clearing, where a settler’s cottage stood, trim and neat in its setting of orchard and garden, with fowls pecking contentedly near the homestead fences, and perhaps barefooted children running about.  One such clearing led to ’Possum’s home, though the trees hid the house; they passed the little jetty where lay the sailing boat which had so nearly cost two lives—little the worse apparently for its long immersion.  Two fishermen had towed it in next day and righted it—empty of all spare gear, but without damage. ’Possum gave a little shudder as she looked at it.