Cirrus@Austlit

Every Sunday Eily's mother reads to her young family a periodical that claims to present evidence of the fulfilment of doom and disaster. These fill the meek Eily with terror. Then, in her twenties, Eily rebels, fighting for Denny James, who has been sent to work on the family's sheep station to 'make something' of him.

Leonie Matthews is in the middle of cutting an elk-horn from a tree when she is accosted by an irate Dick Bowers. She promises to leave the fern where it is growing, but later goes back for it and is caught in the act by Dick. He is disgusted with her, but eventually learns what she is doing with the plants.