"Good damper, eh?" he said, and
Billy Muck rubbing his middle, full of damper and satisfaction, answered:
"My word! That one damper good fellow. Him sit down long time", and all
the camp, rubbing middles, echoed his sentiments. The stodgy damper had
made them feel full and uncomfortable; and to be full and uncomfortable
after a meal spells happiness to a black fellow.
"Hope it won't sit too heavy on my chest," chuckled the man from Beyanst,
then, remembering that barely twelve hours before he had ridden into the
camp a stranger, began "begging pardon, ma'am," most profusely again, and
hoped we'd excuse him "making so free with a lady."
"It's your being so friendly like, ma'am," he explained. "Most of the
others I've struck seemed too good for rough chaps like us. Of course,"
he added hastily, "that's not saying that you're not as good as 'em. You
ain't a Freezer on a pedestal, that's all."
"Thank Heaven," the Maluka murmured and the man from Beyanst sympathised
with him. "Must be a bit off for their husbands," he said; and his
apologies were forgotten in the absorbing topic of "Freezers.
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