At afternoon tea there was no milk served. "There was none," Sam
explained blandly. "The missus had drunk it all. Missus bin finissem
milk all about," he said When the lubras were brought back, THEY said
THEY had "knocked up longa scrub," and finished the floor under protest.
The Maluka offered assistance; but I thought I ought to manage them
myself, and set the lubras to clean and strip some feathers for a
pillow--the Maluka had been busy with a shot-gun--and suggested to Sam
that he might spend some of his spare time shooting birds.
Mac had been right when he said the place was stiff with birds. A deep
fringe of birds was constantly moving in and about and around the
billabong; and the perpetual clatter of the plovers and waders formed an
undercurrent to the life at the homestead.
The lubras worked steadily for a quarter of an hour at the feathers; then
a dog-fight demanding all their attention, the feathers were left to the
mercy of the winds, and were never gathered together. At sundown Sam
fired into a colony of martins that Mac considered the luck of the
homestead.
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