"It's all in the good cause," he chuckled, shaking himself like
a water-spaniel after a particularly bad misadventure; and described the
"performance" with great zest to the Maluka when he returned. The sight
of the clean walls filled the Maluka also with zeal for the cause, and in
the week that followed walls sprouted with corner shelves and brackets -
three wooden kerosene cases became a handy series of pigeonholes for
magazines and papers. One panel in the diningroom was completely filled
with bookshelves, one above the other for our coming books. Great sheets
of bark, stripped by the blacks from the Ti Tree forest, were packed a
foot deep above the rafters to break the heat reflected from the iron
roof, while beneath it the calico ceiling was tacked up. And all the
time Johnny hammered and whistled and planed, finishing the bathroom and
"getting on" with the office.
The Quiet Stockman coming in, was pressed into the service, and grew
quite enthusiastic, suggesting substitutes for necessities, until I
suggested cutting off the tail of every horse on the run, to get enough
horsehair for a mattress.
"Believe the boss'ud do it himself if she asked him," he said in the
Quarters; and in his consternation suggested bangtailing the cattle
during the musters.
"Just the thing," Dan decided; and we soon saw, with his assistance, a
vision of our future mattress walkin' about the run on the ends of cows'
tails.
