"Got Through With The First Draught, Anyway," Dan Commented, And, No
Second Book Being At Our Service We Settled Down
To Kipling's "Just-So
Stories." Then the billabong "petering out" altogether, and the soakage
threatening to follow suit, its yield
Was kept strictly for personal
needs, and Dan and the Maluka gave their attention to the elements.
"Something's got to happen soon," they declared, as we gasped in the
stifling calm that had now settled down upon the Territory; for
gradually the skirmishings had ceased, and the two great giants of the
Territory element met in the centre of the arena for their last desperate
struggle. Knee to knee they were standing, marvellously well matched
this year, each striving his utmost, and yet neither giving nor taking an
inch; and as they strove their satellites watched breathlessly.
Even the Willy-Willys had lain down to watch the silent struggle, and
Dan, finding himself left entirely without occupation, "feared he would
be taking to booklearning soon if something didn't happen!" "Never knew
the showers so late," he growled; and the homestead was inclined to agree
that it was the "dead-finish"; but remembering that even then our Fizzer
was battling through that last stage of the Dry, we were silent, and Dan
remembering also, devoted himself to the "missus," she being also a
person of leisure now the Willy-Willys were at rest.
For hours we pitched near the restful green of the melon-beds, and as we
pitched the Maluka ran fencing wires through two sides of the garden
fence, while Tiddle'ums and Bett-Bett, hovering about him, adapted
themselves to the new order of things, finding the line the goats had to
stop at no longer imaginary. And as the fence grew, Dan lent a hand here
and there, the rejected and the staff indulged in glorious washing-days
among the lilies of the Reach; Cheon haunted the vegetable patch like a
disconsolate ghost; while Billy Muck, the rainmaker, hovered bat-like
over his melons, lending a hand also with the fence when called upon. As
Cheon mourned, his garden also mourned, but when the melons began to
mourn, at the Maluka's suggestion, Billy visited the Reach with two
buckets, and his usual following of dogs, and after a two-mile walk gave
the melons a drink.
Next day Billy Muck pressed old Jimmy into the service and, the Reach
being visited twice, the melons received eight buckets of water Then
Cheon tried every wile he knew to secure four buckets for his garden.
"Only four," he pleaded, lavish in his bribes. But Billy and Jimmy had
"knocked up longa a carry water," and Cheon watched them settle down to
smoke, on the verge of tears. Then a traveller coming in with the news
that heavy ram had fallen in Darwin - news gleaned from the gossiping
wire - Cheon was filled with jealous fury at the good fortune of Darwin,
and taunted Billy with rain-making taunts. "If he were a rain-maker," he
taunted, "he would make a little when he wanted it, instead of walking
miles with buckets," and the taunts rankling in Billy's royal soul, he
retired to the camp to see about it.
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