A thick layer of frost covered the ground as the Turner children walked briskly the 2 km route to the bus. Mid-winter in Peak View was harsh and the air hurt your skin. Although snow was not likely, Peak View was close enough to the Snowy Mountains to make the mornings cold and dark. In the summer, the children used the race car to go on the road, but in the winter the car was almost always frozen. The school bus was silent and Meggie took her same seat behind her sisters Joséphine and Thérèse, who were both eight years old. The one thing Meggie really enjoyed about winter was the fog which was always low and when the sun managed to shine through the fog it created the most beautiful scenery Meggie could imagine. The normally dry land was full of silhouetted gum trees and the frost glistened. At “Athlone,” which was the name of the farm, the Barron children boarded the bus. There were five Barron children, and between them and the Turners, they made up the majority of the bus and the school. Anna Barron was Meggie's best friend and, as usual, took the seat next to Meggie. The bus took half an hour and picked up a total of 16 children. The school was Jernangle Public School which had 19 pupils and one teacher, Mr Burns. The school ranged from kindergarten to 4th grade. After that, most of the children went to Monaro High School in Cooma or started working. As the day progressed, the fog lifted and the Australian sun thawed the playing field in time for recess. Halfway through what had been a normal day for the Turner children, their father, Bill Turner, strictly "father" to the children, entered the playroom. class and told them to get in the car. This was extremely abnormal because his father never came to school and was a... middle of paper ... it was obvious that Daniel and Meggie were truly meant for each other. They had planned to go on holiday to Sydney to watch a local football match in October. Only a week before they were scheduled to drive up, Meggie fainted in class. After being rushed to the emergency room, it was discovered that she needed a blood transfusion within the hour. The family knew that the only person sharing her blood type was Catherine. Despite all efforts, the family was unable to contact Catherine. His cane hit the hard, dry grass. The wind was hot and picking up dust. The gum tree provided limited relief from the harsh, unrelenting Australian sun. As she approached the grave, as she had done every year before, Catherine's heart ached with the unforgiving memory of the fact that she was not there to save her. She had lived, but she lived with the guilt that haunted her soul.