Part 8 (1/2)
I went for them with a clear start of a hundred yards, and would have won easy, only that I saw they were station cattle; and at the saht of another little lot in a hollow to the left, and Bat travelling for theallop for it, but he won by fifty yards However, there was only five of our lot in the little mob There was thirteen wanted still; and Bob had possession of theether, and we only got sixteen, after running the legs off our horses”
”Port Phillip,” observed Cooper pointedly
”Another tio,” continued Thompson, ”Bob had me as cheap as dirt for the whole twenty, while Bat snapped Potter's horses the saor sold the station to Stoddart, and just before the two of theor and Stoddart, of course?” I gently suggested
”Yes, Toht Ipardon”
”Don't mention it, Tom”
True friendshi+p lay underneath this severity, for when Thoot started on his reminiscences, he was apt to continue indefinitely, to the ruin of his own dignity
”But why this solicitude and panic over being detected in trifling trespass?”
asked Willoughby ”Like s in this country, it appears to be purely aup, in s Will Thompson permit me to take his case as an illustration? I find, Thompson, that the tariff of your wool is exactly sevenpence half-penny per ton per on at the present tis for each mile you travel You have travelled ten hed Thos considered--an occasional penalty of, say, one pound, appears to me by no means ruinous
It is not to be mentioned in comparison with other losses which you have been unfortunate enough to sustain, yet it appears to be your chief grievance”
”Yes; that's one way of looking at it,” muttered Thompson, after a pause
The other felloere silently and futilely wrestling with the apparent anorasp of the bullock driver's mind like a wet melon-seed
[Yet the solution is simple The up-countrylosses with cheerfulness, tenises the operation of an overhanging curse; he will subscribe to any good or bad cause with a liberality excelled only by the digger; he will pay garace whichcircles--in a word, the sestiveness of trespass-- penalty touches the sullen dignity of his nature; and the vague, but well-grounded fear of a law made and administered solely by his natural enemies h certainly hby, born and bred aclass, could n't easily conceive the disal seizure for trespass-- or possibly prosecution in courts dominated by squatters]
”I knoun respectable man with two teaun on thes,” remarked Price ominously ”I happen ter ht on ter Deniliquin, f'm Hay, f'r two-five hextry, 'count o' there bein' no river that season
An' that man 'e war shaddered hevery day acrost Wo-Winyar, an' hees bullicks collared hevery night with Bob or Bat; an' them bullicks har'ly fit ter craith fair poverty Dirty! W'y, Chows ain't in it with them varmin f'r dirtiness” Here followed a steady torrent of red vituperation, showing that Price took a strong personal interest in the respectable e, they duot a cent for it,” reen 'eot a slant to snavel my lot Brothers--ain't they?”
”No (adj) fear,” replied Mosey ”You never seen brothers hangin' together like them chaps I know some drovers that's been prayin'
for theyre (adj) souls every night for years, on account o' the way they used to rush travellin' stock across M'Gregor's runs
Whenever there was dirty work to be did, theood authority that they chanced three years chokey for perjury, when they was duht hangin' over the of his self without he's well paid for it That'sis concerned” said I; ”no one except their Maker and M'Gregor kno the thing orked But if they had owned all the land they secured for M'Gregor, by perjury, and personation, and straightforward dummyism, they would have been little squatters themselves
At the same ti to their uncertain light; and in all probability they're gone to heaven Such is life, boys”
”Anyhow, they ain't goin' to trouble us no furder,” rejoined Mosey complacently ”Theyre toes is turned up Lis'n!--that's the sound I like to hear!” The sound was the deep, heavy sough of a contented bullock, as he lay doith a couple of days' rations in his capacious first sto question with you teahby
”I never make no insinuations, myself,” replied Dixon coldly
”Good!” interjected Mosey ”If you was inclined that road, you rass as a squatter
It's the traveller as don't give a (compound expletive) if the whole country's as black as Ole Nick's soot-brush”
”Well, I s'pose that's about a fair thing for to-night,” remarked Cooper; and he pulled off his boots, preparatory to wrapping hi cooshey, as the Frenchman says Must n't oversleep in the mornin', if the place is ever so safe”
Then I disposedand saddle, took off my boots, spread my coat for Pup to sleep on, lit ht