Part 7 (1/2)
Willoughby brought the drink I fancied even an accession to the subdued suavity of his manner as he picked up and replaced on the tuckerbox the eround at his feet Then he resu his back on Dixon and bum, selected him as chief hearer of his recommenced discourse----
”Comes as near the blackfellow as it's possible for a white et
And you couldn't kill him with an axe Then start hi a loop on a wool rope, ora loose box in a wheel--and he has the best hands in the country
At the saht up in the class of society that sticks a napkin, in a bone ring, alongside your plate at dinner” Here Tho h
”There is nothing unreasonable in that phenohby-- ”rather the reverse Probably the person you speak of is a gentleentleood fah the curriculuraduated, so to speak, in society--such a one has every advantage in any conceivable situation The records of , and so forth, furnish abundant evidence of this very obvious fact
You will find, I think, that high breeding and training are conditions of superiority in the hu, of course, the prienerant aquilae columbas, we say”
”Don't run aith the idear that nobody knoho Columbus was,”
retorted bum ”He discovered Aood”
”More power to yer (adj) elbow, buentleman, if a feller ain't propped up with cash, this country'll (adj) quick fetch him to his proper (adj) level”
”Pardon hby blandly
”A few o, I travelled the Lachlan with a man fitted by birth and culture to be a leader of society; one whose rightful place would be at least in the front rank of your Australian aristocracy How do you account for such areduced to solicit the demd pannikin of flour?”
”Easy,” retorted the sansculotte: ”the duke had jist settled down to his proper (adj) level--like the bloke you'll see in the bottom of a new pannikin when you're drinkin' out of it”
”Mosey,” said Cooper iit up off o' this blanket, I'll kick”--(I did n't catch the rest of the sentence) ”Give us none o' your (adj) Port Phillip ignorance here”
”You can git a drink o' good water in ole Vic, anyhow,” sneered Mosey, with the usual flowers of speech
”An' that's about all you can git,”the sahby, courteously but tenaciously, ”will you perentleree the qualities of the pioneer
Let us begin with those men of whom you Victorians are so justly proud,-- Burke and Wills Then you have----”
”Hold on, hold on,” interrupted Mosey ”Don't go no furder, for Gossake
Yer knockin' yerself bad, an' you don't know it Wills was a pore harmless weed, so he kin pass; but look'ere--there ain't a drover, nor yet a bullock driver, nor yet a stock-keeper, froition straight through to the Gulf, an' back agen, an' never turned a hair--with sich a season as Burke had
Don't sicken a h
”Howlt! Dis-MOUNT!' Grand style o' man for sich a contract! I tell you, that (explorer) died for want of his sherry an' biscakes Why, the ole man, here, seen him out beyond Menindie, with his----”
”Pardon me, Mosey--was Mr Price connected with the expedition?”
”No (adj) fear!” growled Price resentfully ”Jist happened to be there with the (adj) teams Went up with stores, an' cohby, who probably had wept over the sufferings of Burke's party on their way to Menindie, seemed badly nonplussed He murmured acquiescence in Price's authority; and Mosey continued,
”Well, the ole man, here, seen him camped, with his carpet, an' his bedsteed, an' (sheol) knohat paravinalia; an' a man nothin' to do but wait on him; an'--look here!--a cubbard made to fit one o' the caery, an'--as true as I'm a livin' sinner!-- one o' the compartments made distinctly o' purpose to hold his belltopper!”
”Quite so,” replied Willoughby approvingly ”We must bear in mind that Burke had a position to uphold in the party; and that, to maintain subordination, a commander must differentiate himself by”--
”It's Gord's truth, anyhow,” re his mind from a retrospect of its extensive past And, no doubt, the oldto Mosey's description, was sold by auction in Melbourne, with other assets of the expedition, upon Brahe's return
”They give him a lot o' credit for dyin' in the open,” continued the practical little wretch, withof expletive-- ”but I want to knohat else a feller like hiit out? An' you'll see in Melb'n', there, a statue of him, made o' cast steel, or concrete, or somethin', standin' as bold as brass in the middle o' the street! My word! An' all the thousands o' pore beggars that's died o' thirst an' hardshi+p in the back country--all o' theht better men nor Burke knowed how to be--where's theyre statutes?
Don't talk rubbage to me Why, there was no end to that feller's childishness