At our fireside we women did most of the talking, and as we sat chatting
on every subject under the sun, our husbands looked on in indulgent
amusement. Dan soon wearied of the fleeting conversation and turned in,
and the little lad slipped away to the black folk; but late into the
night we talked: late into the night, and all the next day and evening
and following morning - shaded from the brilliant sunshine all day in the
leafy "Cottage," and scorching around the camp fire during the evenings.
And then these travellers, too, passed out of our camp to become, with
the man from Beyanst, just pleasant memories.
"She'll find mere men unsatisfying after this," the Maluka said in
farewell, and a mere man coming in from the north-west before sundown,
greeted the Maluka with: "Thought you married a towny," as he pointed
with eloquent forefinger at our supper circle.
"So I did," the Maluka laughed back. "But before I had time to dazzle
the bushies with her the Wizard of the Never-Never charmed her into a
bush-whacker."
"Into a CHARMING bush-whacker, he MEANS!" the traveller said, bowing
before his introduction; and I wondered how the Maluka could have thought
for one moment that "mere men" would prove unsatisfying.
