Part 3 (1/2)

”Come! A'll bate ye fifty poun' A'm betther rairt nor you! Houl' an'!-- A'll bate ye a hundher'--two hundher', if ye lek, an' stake the money down this minit”----

”Stiddy, now! draw it mild, you fellers there!” thundered Cooper from behind

”Must n't have no quarrellin' while I'ittin' to the ra Cooper with the silent contempt usually lavished upon men of his physique ”Axpect thon's where ye're ht,” suggested Tho, the contractor put his horse into a canter, and, acco only to speak to Mosey for a few minutes as he passed the foremost team

”Curious sample o' (folks) you drop across on the track sometimes,”

remarked Rufus, who remained with us

”No end to the variety,” I replied Then loweringfurtively round, I asked experimentally, ”Haven't I seen you before, somewhere?”

”Queensland,of interest on the horizon, at the side farthest from me

”Native o' that district, I am Jist comin' across for the fust time

What's that bloke's name with the nex' team ahead--if it's a fair question?”

”Bob Dixon”

”Gosh, I'm in luck!” He spurred his mare forward, and attached himself to Dixon for the rest of the afternoon

But ti, and the glitter had died off the plain as the sun went on its way tothe microbe-laden atmosphere of Europe

At last we reached the spot selected as a camp Close on our left was the clump of swamp box which covered about fifty acres of the nearer portion of the selection, leaving a few scattered trees outside the fence On our right, the bare plain extended indefinitely

I ought to explain that this selection was a mile-square block, which had been taken up, four years previously, by a business raze scientifically on a small area

Now Runnymede owned the selection, whilst its for sixpenny parcels of inferior fruit on a railway platform

The fence--erected by the experimentalist--was of the best kind; two rails and four wires; sheep-proof and cattle-proof

The wagons drew off the track, and stopped beside the fence in the deepening twilight The bullocks were unyoked with all speed, and stood around waiting to see what provision would bea dead pine sapling froon, and, of course, eraceful clatter of the adjective used so largely by poets in denunciation of war--”we ain't goin' to travel these carrion a it there

Hold on till I git my internal machine to work on the fence

Dad! Where's that ole morepoke? O, you're there, are you? Fetch the jack off o' your wagon--co fellow

bum,” (abbreviation of ”bummer,” and applied to the red-headed fellow) ”you surround them carrion, or we'll be losin' the run o' theroan from bum's mare followed the heavy stroke of the ruffian's spurs

”Some o' you other (fellows) keep roun' that side,” said he; ”I'll go this road Up! you Red Roverite! ”--No use

The h for one day; she stu heavily over her rider ”What the (quadruple expletive)'s thehiered to her feet ”Coiousness” He re stimulus of his spurs, cantered laboriously out into the dark

Meanwhile, Mosey had taken a hand-saw froon, and had cut the pine spar to a length of about eighteen inches less than a panel of the fence ”Lash this 'ere saplin' hard down on the top rail,”

he now commanded Price and Dixon obeyed, and Mosey laid his powerful bottlejack on the rail, filling up the space, and began to turn it with a long bolt, by way of lever ”You see, Toinnis on any fence froht rails is shouldered, they'll spring soive on'y half a inch, why then, ten posts makes five or six inches; an' that's about all you want