"Never saw a dog makin', its own chain before," he said
to the Maluka as I sat among billows of calico and mosquito netting. But
the homemaking instinct is strong in a woman, and the musterers went out
west without the missus. The Dandy being back at the Bitter Springs
superintending the carting of new posts for the stockyard there, the
missus was left in the care of Johnny and Cheon.
"Now we shan't be long," said Johnny, and Cheon, believing him, expressed
great admiration for Johnny, and superintended the scrubbing of the
walls, while I sat and sewed, yard after yard of oversewing, as never
woman sewed before.
The walls were erected on what is known as the drop-slab-panel
system--upright panels formed of three-foot slabs cut from the outside
slice of tree trunks, and dropped horizontally, one above the other,
between grooved posts--a simple arrangement, quickly run up and artistic
in appearance--outside, a horizontally fluted surface, formed by the
natural curves of the timber, and inside, flat, smooth walls. As in
every third panel there was a door or a window, and as the horizontal
slabs stopped within two feet of the ceiling, the building was
exceedingly airy, and open on all sides.
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