Some days she spent at the homestead housekeeping, cooking, and giving out rations to swagmen--the wild, half-crazed travellers who came in at sundown for the dole of flour, tea and sugar, which was theirs by bush custom.

Some days she spent with the children, and with them learnt a lot of bush life.

It being holiday-time, they practically ran wild all over the place, spending whole days in long tramps to remote parts in pursuit of game.

They had no "play," as that term is known to English children.
They didn't play at being hunters.

They were hunters in real earnest, and their habits and customs had come to resemble very closely those of savage tribes that live by the chase.
With them Mary had numberless new experiences.