And so excellent a sauce is hunger that we
received and enjoyed our "bird apiece" unabashed and unblushingly--the
men-folk returning for further helpings, and the "boys" managing all that
were left.
All agreed that "you couldn't beat cold boiled duck by much"; but in the
morning grilled fish was accepted as "just the thing for breakfast"; then
finding ourselves face to face with Lot's wife, and not too much of that,
we beat a hasty retreat to the homestead; a further opportune "catch" of
duck giving us heart for further brumby encounters and another night's
camp out-bush. Then the following morning as we rode towards the
homestead Dan "reckoned" that from an educational point of view the trip
had been a pronounced success.
CHAPTER XXI
Just before mid-day--five days after we had left the homestead--we rode
through the Southern slip rails to find the Dandy at work "cleaning out a
soakage" on the brink of the billabong, with Cheon enthusiastically
encouraging him. The billabong, we heard, had threatened to "peter out"
in our absence, and riding across the now dusty wind-swept enclosure we
realised that November was with us, and that the "dry" was preparing for
its final fling--"just showing what it could do when it tried.
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