AustLit

'There are four children, Arthur and Kitty, the twins, then Peter, and lastly Bertha. They are orphans and live with their uncle and guardian in a big, comfortable house on the outskirts of Melbourne. The story starts with the arrival of a new governess who has come to take the place of a much-loved lady who had managed them for six years. They are good children, but everything has been made easy for them, and they have been ruled by love, while laws have hardly been known. Business calls their uncle away, and the four, with the new governess, go to a farm at Kangaroo Creek, where the lady of the house dislikes children, and has a code of rules not easy to keep, failure being punished with great severity[...] In spite of harshness the children are happy, for Kangaroo Creek is very beautiful, and they revel in the country life till catastrophe occurs.' Source: 'New Novels', The Advertiser, 3 March, 1917.