Mine Host also sent a message, saying he would "send further supplies
every opportunity, to keep things going until the waggons came through,"
and underlying his message we felt his kindly consideration. As a further
proof of his thoughtfulness we found two china cups imbedded in the tea.
He had heard of Sam's accident. Tea in china cups! and as much and as
strong as we desired. But in spite of Mine Host's efforts to keep us
going, twice again, before the waggons came, we found ourselves begging
tea from travellers.
Our energies revived with the very first cup of tea, and we went for our
usual evening stroll through the paddocks, with all our old appreciation;
and on our return found the men stretched out on the grass beyond the
Quarters, optimistic and happy, sipping at further cups of tea. (Sam's
kettle was kept busy that night.)
The men's optimism was infectious, and presently the Maluka "supposed the
waggons would be starting before long."
It was only March, and the waggons had to wait till the Wet lifted; but
just then every one felt sure that "the Wet would lift early this year."
"Generally does with the change of moon before Easter," the traveller
said, and, flying off at a tangent, I asked when Easter was, unwittingly
setting the homestead a tough problem.
Nobody "could say for certain." But Dan "knew a chap once who could
reckon it by the moon" and the Maluka felt inspired to work it out.
"It's simple enough," he said. "The first Friday - or is it
Sunday? - after the first full moon, AFTER the twenty-first of March."
"Twenty-fifth, isn't it?" the Dandy asked, complicating matters from the
beginning.
The traveller reckoned it'd be new moon about Monday or Tuesday, which
seemed near enough at the time; and full moon was fixed for the Tuesday
or Wednesday fortnight from that.
"That ought to settle it," Dan said; and so it might have if any one had
been sure of Monday's date; but we all had different convictions about
that, varying from the ninth to the thirteenth.
After much ticking off of days upon fingers, with an old newspaper as
"something to work from," the date of the full moon was fixed for the
twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth of March, unless the moon came in so late
on Tuesday that it brought the full to the morning of the twenty-sixth.
"Seems getting a bit mixed," Dan said, and matters were certainly
complicated.
If we were to reckon from the twenty-first, Easter was in March, but if
from the twenty-fifth, in April - if the moon came in on Monday, but March
in either case if the full was on the twenty-sixth.
