"Patience rewarded at last," he called in welcome; and when invited to
"come ben the hoose to the diningroom," was, as usual, full of
congratulations. "My! We are some!" he said, examining every detail.
But as he also said that "the Dandy could get the trunks right off if we
liked to send him across with the dray," we naturally "liked," and Johnny
and the Dandy harnessing up, went with him, and before long the verandah
and rooms were piled with trunks.
Fortunately Dan was "bush" again among the cattle, or his heart would
have broken at this new array of links for the chain.
Once the trunks were all in, Mac, the Dandy, and Johnny retired to the
Quarters after a few more congratulations, Johnny continuing his
flourishes all the way across. Cheon however, with his charming
disregard for conventionality being interested, settled himself on one of
the trunks to watch the opening up of the others.
To have ordered him away would have clouded his beaming happiness; so he
remained, and told us exactly what he thought of our possessions, adding
much to the pleasure of the opening of the trunks. If any woman would
experience real pleasure, let her pack all her belongings into
trunks - all but a couple of changes of everything - and go away out-bush,
leaving them to follow "after the Wet" per bullock waggon, and when the
reunion takes place the pleasure will be forthcoming. If she can find a
Cheon to be present at the reunion, so much the better.
Some of our belongings Cheon thoroughly approved of; others were passed
over as unworthy of notice; and others were held up to chuckling
ridicule. A silver teapot was pounced upon with a cry of delight
(tinware being considered far beneath the dignity of a missus, and seeing
Sam had broken the china pot soon after its arrival, tinware had graced
our board for some time), pictures were looked at askance, particularly
an engraving of Psyche at the Pool; while the case for a set of carvers
received boundless admiration, although the carvers in no way interested
him.
The photographs of friends and relatives were looked carefully over, the
womenfolk being judged by what they might bring in a Chinese matrimonial
market.
"My word! That one good-looking. Him close up sixty pound longa China,"
was rather disconcerting praise of a very particular lady friend.
A brass lamp was looked upon as a monument of solid wealth, "Him gold,"
he decided, insisting it was in the face of all denials. "Him gold. Me
savey gold all right. Me live longa California long time," he said,
bringing forward a most convincing argument; and, dismissing the subject
with one of his Podsnapian waves, he decided that a silver-coloured
composition flower-bowl in the form of a swan was solid silver; "Him sing
out all a same silver," he said, making it ring with a flick of his
finger and thumb, when I differed from him, and knowing Cheon by now, we
left it at that for the time being.
After wandering through several trunks and gloating over blouses, and
skirts, and house-linen, and old friends the books were opened up, and
before the Maluka became lost to the world Cheon favoured them with a
passing glance. "Big mob book," he said indifferently, and turned his
attention to the last trunk of all.
Near the top was a silver filigree candlestick moulded into the form of a
Convolvulus flower and leaf - a dainty little thing, but it appeared
ridiculous to Cheon's commonsense mind.
"Him silly fellow," he scoffed, and appealed to the Maluka for his
opinion: "him silly fellow? Eh boss?" he asked.
The Maluka was half-buried in books. "Um," he murmured absently, and
that clinched the matter for all time. "Boss bin talk silly fellow" Cheon
said, with an approving nod toward the Maluka, and advised packing the
candlestick away again. "Plenty room sit down longa box," he said,
truthfully enough, putting it into an enormous empty trunk and closing
the lid, leaving the candlestick a piece of lonely splendour hidden under
a bushel.
But the full glory of our possessions was now to burst upon Cheon. The
trunk we were at was half filled with all sorts of cunning devices for
kitchen use, intended for the mistress's pantry of that commodious
station home of past ignorant imagination. A mistress's pantry forsooth,
in a land where houses are superfluous and luxuries barred, and at a
homestead where the mistress had long ceased to be anything but the
little missus - something to rule or educate or take care of, according to
the nature of her subordinates.
In a flash I knew all I had once been, and quailing before the awful
proof before me, presented Cheon with the whole collection of tin and
enamel ware, and packed him off to the kitchen before the Maluka had time
to lose interest in the books.
Everything was exactly what Cheon most needed, and he accepted everything
with gleeful chuckles - everything excepting a kerosene Primus burner for
boiling a kettle. That he refused to touch. "Him go bang," he explained,
as usual explicit and picturesque in his English.
After gathering his treasure together he waddled away to the kitchen, and
at afternoon tea we had sponge cakes, light and airy beyond all dreams of
airy lightness, no one having yet combined the efforts of Cheon, a flour
dredge, and an egg-beater, in his dreams. And Cheon's heart being as
light as his cookery, in his glee he made a little joke at the expense of
the Quarters, summoning all there to afternoon tea with a chuckling call
of "Cognac!" chuckles that increased tenfold at the mock haste of the
Quarters.
