Jack, having "roped all the two-year-olds" in that first lesson, spent
all evening handling them, and the Quarters looked on as he tested their
tempers, for although most proved willing, yet a few were tricky or
obstinate. All evening he sat, poring over the tiny Primer, amid a
buzzing swarm of mosquitoes, with the doggedness all gone from his face,
and in its place the light of a fair fight, and, to no one's surprise, in
the morning we heard that "all the two-year-olds came at his call."
Another lesson at the midday spell roped most of the three-year-olds, and
another evening brought them under the Quiet Stockman's will, and then in
a few more days the four-year-olds and upwards had been dealt with, and
the Primer was exhausted.
"Got through with the first draught, anyway," Dan commented, and, no
Second Book being at our service we settled down to Kipling's "Just-So
Stories." Then the billabong "petering out" altogether, and the soakage
threatening to follow suit, its yield was kept strictly for personal
needs, and Dan and the Maluka gave their attention to the elements.
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