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.
