Part 13 (1/2)
”Certainly, I will”
”Well, it's a half day's contract I'll git some breakfast ready, while you (fellows) unloosens the ropes”
Thompson and I released the bullocks froon down to its wheels again Then Cooper summoned us to breakfast
”You'll jist take sort o' pot-luck, Collins,” he remarked
”I should 'a' baked soht, on'y for bein' too busy doin' nothing Laziness is catchin'
That's why I hate a lot o' fellers caon ain't greazed, an' your tarpolin ain't looked to; an' nothin done but yarn, yarn; an' you floggin' in your own ot the purchase on us (fellows) When a lot o' woious, an' the rest all wires in at sewin', or knittin', or so They can't suffer to be idle, nor to see anybody else idle--women can't” Cooper was an observer
It was pleasant to hear hi was made severe and tedious by the lack of any better skids than the poles of the tagons--was, indeed, made impossible under the circuth Our toil was enlivened, however, by an argument as to the esoteric cause of the capsize Cooperbetter could have been hoped for, after leaving Kenilworth shed on a Friday; Thompson, untrammelled by such superstition, contended that theon Sunday; whilst I held it to be merely a proof that Cooper, in spite of his sins, wasn't deserted yet Each of us supported his argument by a wealth of illustrative cases, and thus fortified his own stubborn opinion to his own perfect satisfaction Then, descending to s, we discussed Cleopatra Here ere unani that the horse had, as yet, disclosed only two faults, and these not the faults of the Irishman's horse in the weary yarn One of the first rope backward for the person ent to catch hi
In the meantime, four horsemen, with three pack-horses, went by; then two horse teaive a feords of sympathy as he drove past; then far ahead, o wool tea slowly toward the e, five or six miles behind By this ti tied the last levers, looked round before descending fro the track from the ram-paddick, an' another (fellow) on a brown horse comin' across the plain,” he remarked
”Wonder if one o' them's Martin-an' he's rose a horse at the station?”
”I was thinking about to-night,” replied Tho soon comes under the what-you-ested
”Yes Come and have a drink of tea, and a bit of Cooper's pastry
His cookery does n't fatten, but it fills up”
”O you (adj) liar,” gently protested the Cornstalk, as he seated hiround beside the tucker-box ”Is this Martin?”--for theat a canter
”No,” I replied; ”he's a stranger to me”
”But that's Martin on the brown horse,” said Tho, Tom, if you can Don't let hiht, for, after all, I'll be hanged if I'h to tell hiht or three weeks”
By this ti us
In response to Thompson's invitation, he stopped and dismounted
”Jist help yourself, an' your friends'll like you the better, as the sayin' is,” said Cooper, handing him a pannikin
”Thanks I'll do so; I didn't have any breakfast thisup a johnny-cake (which liberal shepherds give a grosser na it with relish, while the interior lah spued out fro teeth ”Been having a littlesince my lads passed? I see their tracks on the road”
”About three hours,” replied Tho felloool-grey horse behind one of the wagons?
Good day, Mr Martin Have a drink of tea?”
”Yes, I er ”Old Price's teams, I think--Good day, Martin--six or sevenbehind, with another fellow driving his tea-lost brother, apparently”
”Where did you fellows have your bullocks last night?” de on the sun-cracked stucco which covered three-fourths of Damper's colossal personality