As the pliant saw coaxed beams, and slabs, and flooring boards out of the
forest trees I grew to like beginning at the beginning of things, and
realised there was an underlying truth in Dan's whimsical reiteration,
that "the missus was in luck when she struck this place"; for beams and
slabs and flooring boards wrested from Nature amid merrymaking and
philosophical discourses are not as other beams and slabs and flooring
boards. They are old friends and fellow-adventurers, with many a good
tale to tell, recalling comical situations in their reminiscences with a
vividness that baffles description.
Perhaps those who live in homes with the beginning of things left behind
in forests they have never seen, may think chattering planks a poor
compensation for unpapered, rough-boarded walls and unglazed window
frames. Let them try it before they judge; remembering always, that
before a house can be built of old friends and memories the friends must
be made and the memories lived through.
But other things beside the sawing of timber were in progress, Things
were also "humming" in the dog world. A sturdy fox-terrier, Brown by
name, had been given by a passing traveller to the Maluka, given almost
of necessity for Brown - as is the way with fox-terriers at times - quietly
changed masters, and lying down at the Maluka's feet, had refused to
leave him.
