Her blouses had, apparently, been all mislaid. Nellie,
unconscious of my real objections, daily and doggedly put herself on the
staff, and was daily and doggedly dismissed. But as she generally
managed to do the very thing that most needed doing, before I could find
her to dismiss, Dan was offering ten to one on Nellie by Easter time.
"Another moon'll see her on the staff," he prophesied, as we prepared to
go out-bush for Easter.
The Easter moon had come in dry and cool, and at its full the Wet lifted,
as our traveller had foretold. Only a bushman's personal observation,
remember, this lifting of the Wet with the full of the Easter moon, not a
scientific statement; but by an insight peculiarly their own, bushmen
come at more facts than most men.
Sam did his best with Bunday, serving hot rolls with mysterious markings
on them for breakfast, and by midday he had the homestead to himself, the
Maluka and I being camped at Bitter Springs and every one else being
elsewhere. Our business was yard-inspection, with Goggle-Eye as general
factotum. We, of course, had ridden out, but Goggle-Eye had preferred to
walk.
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