And all through
his absence, as before it, and before the Fizzer's visit, Dan and the
elements "kept things humming."
Daily the soakage yielded less and less water, and daily Billy Muck and
Cheon scrimmaged over its yield; for Billy's melons were promising to pay
a liberal dividend, and Cheon's garden was crying aloud for water. Every
day was filled with flies, and dust, and prickly heat, and daily and
hourly our hands waved unceasingly, as they beat back the multitude of
flies that daily and hourly assailed us--the flies and dust treated all
alike, but the prickly heat was more chivalrous, and refrained from
annoying a woman. "Her usual luck!" the men-folk said, utilising
verandah-posts or tree-trunks for scratching posts when not otherwise
engaged. Daily "things" and the elements hummed, and as they hummed Dan
and Jack came and went like Will-o'-the-Wisps--sometimes from the
south-east and sometimes from the north-east; and as they came and went,
the Maluka kept his hand on the helm; Happy Dick filled in odd times as
he alone knew how; a belated traveller or two passing out came in, and
went on, or remained; Brown of the Bulls sent on a drover ahead of the
mob to spy out the land, and the second letter left the rack, while all
who came in, or went on, or remained, during their stay at the homestead,
stood about the posts and uprights waving off flies, and rubbing and
wriggling against the posts like so many Uriah Heeps, as they laid plans,
gossiped, gave in reports, or "swopped yarns.
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