"Can't carry it round with you, you know," he said,
"and it won't be needed anywhere else." Then he surveyed the house with
his philosophical eye.
"Wouldn't know the old place," Johnny had said, and Dan "reckoned" it was
"all right as houses go." Adding with a chuckle, "Well, she's wrestled
with luck for more'n four months to get it, but the question is, what's
she going to use it for now she's got it?"
CHAPTER XIV
For over four months we had wrestled with luck for a house, only to find
we had very little use for it for the time being, that is, until next
Wet. It couldn't be carried out-bush from camp to camp, and finding us
at a loss for an answer, Dan suggested one himself.
"Of course!" he said, as he eyed the furnishings with interest, "it 'ud
come in handy to pack the chain away in while the dog was out enjoying
itself "; and we left it at that. It came in handy to pack the chain
away in while the dog was enjoying itself, for within twenty-four hours
we were camped at the Bitter Springs, and two weeks passed before the
homestead saw us again.
After our experience of "getting hold of Johnny," Dan called it
foolishness to wait for an expert, and the Dandy being away for the
remainder of the stores, and the Quiet Stockman having his hands full to
overflowing, the Maluka and Dan with that adaptability peculiar to
bushmen, set to work themselves at the yard, with fifteen or twenty boys
as apprentices.
As most of the boys had their lubras with them, it was an immense camp,
but exceedingly pretty. One small tent "fly" for a dressing-room for the
missus, and the remainder of the accommodation - open-air and shady bough
gundies; tiny, fresh, cool, green shade-houses here, there, and
everywhere for the blacks; one set apart from the camp for a larder, and
an immense one - all green waving boughs - for the missus to rest in during
the heat of the day. "The Cottage," Dan called it.
Of course, Sool'em and Brown were with us, Little Tiddle'ums being in at
the homestead on the sick list with a broken leg; and in addition to
Sool'em and Brown an innumerable band of nigger dogs, Billy Muck being
the adoring possessor of fourteen, including pups, which fanned out
behind him as he moved hither and thither like the tail of a comet.
Our camp being a stationary one, was, by comparison with our ordinary
camps, a campe-de-luxe; for, apart from the tent-fly, in it were books,
pillows, and a canvas lounge, as well as some of the flesh-pots of Egypt,
in the shape of eggs, cakes, and vegetables sent out every few days by
Cheon, to say nothing of scrub turkeys, fish, and such things.
Dan had no objection to the eggs, cakes, or vegetables, but the pillows
and canvas lounge tried him sorely. "Thought the chain was to be left
behind in the kennel," he said, and decided that the "next worst thing to
being chained up was" for a dog to have to drag a chain round when it was
out for a run. "Look at me!" he said, "never been chained up all me life,
just because I never had enough permanent property to make a chain - never
more than I could carry in one hand: a bluey, a change of duds, a
mosquito net, and a box of Cockle's pills."
We suggested that Cockle's pills were hardly permanent property, but Dan
showed that they were, with him.
"More permanent than you'd think," he said. "When I've got 'em in me
swag, I never need 'em, and when I've left 'em somewhere else I can't get
'em: so you see the same box does for always."
Yard-building lacking in interest, lubras and piccaninnies provided
entertainment, until Dan failing to see that "niggers could teach her
anything," decided on a course of camp cookery.
Roast scrub turkey was the first lesson cooked in the most correct style:
a forked stick, with the fork uppermost, was driven into the ground near
the glowing heap of wood ashes; then a long sapling was leant through the
fork, with one end well over the coals; a doubled string, with the turkey
hanging from it, looped over this end; the turkey turned round and round
until the string was twisted to its utmost, and finally string and turkey
were left to themselves, to wind and unwind slowly, an occasional
winding-up being all that was necessary.
The turkey was served at supper, and with it an enormous boiled
cabbage - one of Cheon's successes. Dan was in clover, boiled cabbage
being considered nectar fit for the gods, and after supper he put the
remnants of the feast away for his breakfast. "Cold cabbage goes all
right," he said, as he stowed it carefully away - "particularly for
breakfast."
Then the daily damper was to be made, and I took the dish without a
misgiving. I felt at home there, for bushmen have long since discarded
the old-fashioned damper, and use soda and cream-of-tartar in the
mixture. But ours was an immense camp, and I had reckoned without any
thought. An immense camp requires an immense damper; and, the dish
containing pounds and pounds of flour, when the mixture was ready for
kneading the kneading was beyond a woman's hands - a fact that provided
much amusement to the bushmen.
"Hit him again, little 'un," the Maluka cried encouragingly, as I punched
and pummelled at the unwieldy mass.
