"If the cleaning of one room causes
all this trouble and worry, where'll she be when she's got four to look
after?
What with white ants, and blue mould, and mildew, and wrestling
with lubras, there won't be one minute to spare for education."
He also professed disapproval of the Maluka's devices for making the
homestead more habitable. "If this goes on we'll never learn her nothing
but loafin'", he declared when he found that a couple of yards of canvas
and a few sticks had become a comfortable lounge chair. "Too much
luxury!" and he sat down on his own heels to show how he scorned
luxuries. A tree sawn into short lengths to provide verandah seats for
all comers he passed over as doubtful. He was slightly reassured however,
when he heard that my revolver practice had not been neglected, and
condescended to own that some of the devices were "handy enough." A neat
little tray, made from the end of a packing-case and a few laths,
interested him in particular. "You'll get him dodged for ideas one of
these days," he said, alluding to the Maluka's ingenuity, and when, a day
or two later, I broke the spring of my watch and asked helplessly,
"However was I going to tell the time till the waggons came with the
clock?" Dan felt sure I had set an unsolvable problem.
"That 'ud get anybody dodged," he declared; but it took more than that to
"dodge" the Maluka's resourcefulness.
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