A pub had little attraction for the Sanguine Scot, and provided he could
steer the other Macs safely past the one at the Katherine, there would be
no delay there with the trunks; but the year's stores were on the horse
teams and the station, having learnt bitter experience from the past, now
sent in its own waggon for the bulk of the stores, as soon as they were
known to be at the Katherine; and so the Dandy set off at once.
"You'll see me within a fortnight, bar accidents" he called back, as the
waggon lurched forward towards the slip-rails; and the pub also having
little attraction for the Dandy, we decided to expect him, "bar
accidents." For that matter, a pub had little attraction for any of the
Elsey men, the Quiet Stockman being a total abstainer, and Dan knowing
"how to behave himself," although he owned to having "got a bit merry
once or twice."
The Dandy out of sight, Johnny went back to his work, which happened to
be hammering the curves out of sheets of corrugated iron.
"Now we shan't be long," he shouted, hammering vigorously, and when I
objected to the awful din, he reminded me, with a grin, that it was "all
in the good cause." When "smoothed out," as Johnny phrased it, the iron
was to be used for capping the piles that the house was built upon, "to
make them little white ants stay at home."
"We'll smooth all your troubles out, if you give us time," he shouted,
returning to the hammering after his explanation with even greater
energy. But by dinnertime some one had waddled into our lives who was to
smooth most of the difficulties out of it, to his own, and our complete
satisfaction.
Just as Sam announced dinner a cloud of dust creeping along the horizon
attracted our attention.
"Foot travellers!" Dan decided; but something emerged out of the dust, as
it passed through the sliprails, that looked very like a huge mould of
white jelly on horse-back.
Directly it sighted us it rolled off the horse, whether intentionally or
unintentionally we could not say, and leaving the beast to the care of
chance, unfolded two short legs from somewhere and waddled towards us - a
fat, jovial Chinese John Falstaff.
"Good day, boss! Good day, missus! Good day, all about," he said in
cheerful salute, as he trundled towards us like a ship's barrel in full
sail. "Me new cook, me - " and then Sam appeared and towed him into port.
"Well, I'm blest!" Dan exclaimed, staring after him. "What HAVE we
struck?"
But Johnny knew, as did most Territorians. "You've struck Cheon, that's
all," he said. "Talk of luck! He's the jolliest old josser going."
The "jolliest old josser" seemed difficult to repress; for already he had
eluded Sam, and, reappearing in the kitchen doorway, waddled across the
thoroughfare towards us.
"Me new cook!" he repeated, going on from where he had left off. "Me
Cheon!" and then, in queer pidgin-English, he solemnly rolled out a few
of his many qualifications:
"Me savey all about," he chanted. "Me savey cook 'im, and gard'in', and
milk 'im, and chuckie, and fishin' and shootin' wild duck." On and on he
chanted through a varied list of accomplishments, ending up with an
application for the position of cook. "Me sit down? Eh boss?" he asked,
moon-faced and serious.
"Please yourself!" the Maluka laughed, and with a flash of white teeth
and an infectious chuckle Cheon laughed and nodded back; then, still
chuckling, he waddled away to the kitchen and took possession there,
while we went to our respective dinners, little guessing that the
truest-hearted, most faithful, most loyal old "josser" had waddled into
our lives.
CHAPTER XI
Cheon rose at cock-crow ("fowl-sing-out," he preferred to call it), and
began his duties by scornfully refusing Sam's bland offer of instruction
in the "ways of the homestead."
"Me savey all about," he said, with a majestic wave of his hands, after
expressing supreme contempt for Sam's caste and ways; so Sam applied for
his cheque, shook hands all round, and withdrew smilingly.
Sam's account being satisfactorily "squared," Cheon's name was then
formally entered in the station books as cook and gardener, at
twenty-five shillings a week. That was the only vacancy he ever filled
in the books; but in our life at the homestead he filled almost every
vacancy that required filling, and there were many.
There was nothing he could not and did not do for our good, and it was
well that he refused to be instructed in anybody's ways, for his own were
delightfully disobedient and unexpected and entertaining. Not only had
we "struck the jolliest old josser going," but a born ruler and organiser
into the bargain. He knew best what was good for us, and told us so, and,
meekly bending to his will, our orders became mere suggestions to be
entertained and carried out if approved of by Cheon, or dismissed as
"silly-fellow" with a Podsnapian wave of his arm if they in no way
appealed to him.
Full of wrath for Sam's ways, and bubbling over with trundling energy, he
calmly appropriated the whole staff, as well as Jimmy, Billy Muck, and
the rejected, and within a week had put backbone into everything that
lacked it, from the water-butts to old Jimmy.
The first two days were spent in a whirlwind of dust and rubbish, turned
out from unguessed-at recesses, and Cheon's jovial humour suiting his
helpers to a nicety, the rubbish was dealt with amid shouts of delight
and enjoyment; until Jimmy, losing his head in his lightness of heart,
dug Cheon in the ribs, and, waving a stick over his head, yelled in mock
fierceness:
