Dan was for having two Easters, and "getting even with it that way"; but
Sam unexpectedly solved the problem for us.
"What was the difficulty?" he asked, and listened to the explanation
attentively. "Bunday!" he exclaimed at the finish, showing he had fully
grasped the situation. Of course he knew all about Bunday! Wasn't it so
many weeks after the Chinaman's New Year festival? And in a jargon of
pidgin-English he swept aside all moon discussions, and fixed the date of
"Bunday" for the twenty-eighth of March, "which," as Dan wisely remarked,
"proved that somebody was right," but whether the Maluka or the Dandy, or
the moon, he forgot to specify. "The old heathen to beat us all too," he
added, "just when it had got us all dodged." Dan took all the credit of
the suggestion to himself. Then he looked philosophically on the
toughness of the problem: "Anyway," he said, "the missus must have learnt
a bit about beginning at the beginning of things. Just think what she'd
have missed if any one had known when Easter was right off!"
"What she'd have missed indeed. Exactly what the townsman misses, as long
as he remains in a land where everything can be known right off."
But a new idea had come to Dan. "Of course," he said, "as far as that
goes, if Johnny does turn up she ought to learn a thing or two, while
he's moving the dining-room up the house"; and he decided to welcome
Johnny on his return.
He had not long to wait, for in a day or two Johnny rode into the
homestead, followed by a black boy carrying a cross-cut saw. This time he
hailed us with a cheery:
"NOW we shan't be long."
CHAPTER X
It had taken over six weeks to "get hold of little Johnny "; but as the
Dandy had prophesied, once he started, he "made things hum in no time."
"Now we shan't be long," he said, flourishing a tape measure; and the
Dandy was kept busy for half a day, "wrestling with the calculating."
That finished, the store was turned inside out and a couple of "boys"
sent in for "things needed," and after them more "boys" for more things;
and then other "boys" for other things, until travellers must have
thought the camp blacks had entered into a walking competition. When
everything necessary was ordered, "all hands" were put on to sharpen saws
and tools, and the homestead shrieked and groaned all day with harsh,
discordant raspings.
