But the man who deserved it most was to find it. As we sat sipping tea,
after doing our best with the cakes and water-melons, we heard strange
gurgles in the kitchen, and then Cheon appeared choking and coughing, but
triumphantly announcing that he had found the wealth in his first
mouthful. "My word! Me close up gobble him," he chuckled, exhibiting
the pudding-coated threepence, and not one of us grudged him his good
omens. May they have been fulfilled a thousand-fold!
Undoubtedly our Christmas dinner was a huge success--from a black
fellow's point of view it was the most sensible thing we Whites had ever
organised; for half the Vealer, another huge pudding, several yards of
sweet currant "brownie,'" a new pipe apiece, and a few pounds of tobacco
had found their way to the "humpy"; and although headaches may have been
in the near future, there was never a heartache among them.
All afternoon we sat and chatted as only the bush-folk can (the bush-folk
are only silent when in uncongenial society), "putting in" a fair amount
of time writing our names on one page of an autograph album; and as
strong brown hands tried their utmost to honour Christmas day with
something decent in the way of writing, each man declared that he had
never written so badly before, while the company murmured: "Oh, yours is
all right.
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