"
Every one of the company had his special work to attend to; but every
one's work was concerned with cattle, and cattle only. The musterers were
to work every area of country again and again, and the Dandy's work began
in the building of the much-needed yard to the north-west.
We breakfasted at the Springs all together, had dinner miles apart, and
all met again at the Stirling for supper. Dan and ourselves dined also
at the Stirling on damper and "push" and vile-smelling blue-black tea.
The damper had been carried in company with some beef and tea, in Dan's
saddle-pouch; the tea was made with the thick, muddy, almost putrid water
of the fast-drying water hole, and the "push" was provided by force of
circumstances, the pack teams being miles away with the plates, knives,
and forks.
Out-bush we take the good with the bad as we find it; so we sat among
towering white-ant hills, drinking as little of the tea as possible and
enjoying the damper and "push" with hungry relish.
Around the Stirling are acres of red-coloured, queer-shaped uncanny white
ant hills, and camped among these we sat, each served with a slice of
damper that carried a smaller slice of beef upon it, providing the "push"
by cutting off small pieces of the beef with a pen-knife, and "pushing"
them along the damper to the edge of the slice, to be bitten off from
there in hearty mouthfuls.
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