Dan and the Quiet Stockman went out to the north-west immediately, to
“clean up there” before getting the bullocks together; but the Maluka,
settling down to arrears of bookkeeping, with the Dandy at his right
hand, Cheon once more took the missus under his wing feeding her up and
scorning her gardening efforts.
“The idea of a white woman thinking she could grow water-melons,” he
scoffed, when I planted seeds, having decided on a carpet of luxuriant
green to fill up the garden beds until the shrubs grew. The Maluka
advised “waiting,” and the seeds coming up within a few days, Cheon,
after expressing surprise, prophesied an early death or a fruitless
life.
Billy Muck, however, took a practical interest in the water-melons, and
to incite him to water them in our absence, he was made a shareholder in
the venture. As a natural result, the Staff, the Rejected, and the
Shadows immediately applied for shares—pointing out that they too
carried water to the plants—and the water-melon beds became the property
of a Working Liability Company with the missus as Chairman of Directors.
The shadows were as numerous as ever, the rejected on the increase, but
the staff was, fortunately, reduced to three for the time being; or,
rather, reduced to two, and increased again to three: Judy had been
called “bush” on business, and the Macs having got out in good time.
Bertie’s Nellie and Biddie had been obliged to resign and go with the
waggons, under protest, of course, leaving Rosy and Jimmy’s Nellie
augmented by one of the most persistent of all the shadows—a tiny child
lubra, Bett-Bett.
Most of us still considered Bett-Bett one of the shadows but she
persisted that she was the mainstay of the staff. “Me all day dust ’im
paper, me round ’im up goat” she would say. “Me sit down all right”.
She certainly excelled in “rounding-up goat,” riding the old Billy like
a race-horse; and with Rosy filling the position of housemaid to
perfection, Jimmy’s Nellie proving invaluable in her vigorous treatment
of the rejected and the wood-heap gossip filling in odd times, life so
far as it was dependent on black folk—was running on oiled wheels: the
house was clean and orderly, the garden flourished; and as the melons
grew apace, throwing out secondary leaves in defiance of Cheon’s
prophecies, Billy Muck grew more and more enthusiastic, and, usurping
the position of Chairman of the Directors, he inspired the shareholders
with so much zeal that the prophecies were almost fulfilled through a
surfeit of watering. But Cheon’s attitude towards the water-melons did
not change, although he had begun to look with favour upon mail-matter
and station books, finding in them a power that could keep the Maluka at
the homestead.
For two full weeks after our return from the drovers’ camp our life was
exactly as Cheon would have it—peaceful and regular, with an occasional
single day “out-bush”; and when the Maluka in his leisure began to
fulfil his long-standing promise of a defence around my garden, Cheon
expressed himself well-pleased with his reform.
But even the demands of station books and accumulated mail-matter can be
satisfied in time, and Dan reporting that he was “getting going with the
bullocks,” Cheon found his approval had been premature; for, to his
dismay, the Maluka abandoned the fence, and began preparations for a
trip “bush.” “Surely the missus was not going?” he said; and next day we
left him at the homestead, a lonely figure, seated on an overturned
bucket, disconsolate and fearing the worst.
Cheon often favoured an upside-down bucket for a seat. Nothing more
uncomfortable for a fat man can be imagined, yet Cheon sat on his
rickety perch, for the most part chuckling and happy. Perhaps, like Mark
Tapley, he felt it a “credit being jolly” under such circumstances.
By way of contrast, we found Dan and Jack optimistic and happy, with
some good bullocks in hand, a record branding to report for the
fortnight’s work, and a drover in camp of such a delightful turn of mind
that he was inclined to look upon every bullock mustered as “just the
thing.” He was easily disposed of, and within a week we were back at the
homestead.
We had left Cheon sad and disconsolate, but he met us, filled with fury,
and holding a sack of something soft in his arms. “What’s ’er matter?”
he spluttered, almost choking with rage. “Me savey grow cabbage”; and
he flung the sack at our feet as we stood in the homestead thoroughfare
staring at him in wonder. “Paper yabber!” he added curtly, passing a
letter to the Maluka.
It was a kindly, courteous letter from our Eastern neighbour, who had
“ventured to send a cabbage, remembering the homestead garden did not
get on too well.” (His visits had been in Sam’s day). “How kind!” we
said, and not understanding Cheon’s wrath, the Maluka opened the bag,
and passed two fine cabbages to him after duly admiring them.
They acted on Cheon like a red rag on a bull. Flinging them from him, he
sent them spinning across the stony ground with two furious kicks,
following them up with further furious kicks as we looked on in
speechless amazement. “What’s ’er matter?” he growled, as, abandoning
the chase with a final lunge, he stalked indignantly back to us; and as
the unfortunate cabbages turned over and lay still on their tattered
backs, he began to explain his wrath. Was he not paid to grow cabbages,
he asked, and where had he failed that we should accept cabbages from
neighbours? Cabbages for ourselves, but insults for him! Then, the
comical side of his nature coming to the surface as unexpectedly as his
wrath, he was overcome with laughter, and clung to a verandah post for
support, while still speechless, we looked on in consternation, for
laughing was a serious matter with Cheon.
“My word, me plenty cross fellow,” he gasped at intervals and finally
led the way to the vegetable garden, where he cut an enormous cabbage
and carried it to the store to weigh it. The scale turned at twelve
pounds, and, sure of our ground now, we compared its mighty heart to the
stout heart of Cheon—a compliment fully appreciated by his Chinese mind;
then, having disparaged the tattered results to his satisfaction, we
went to the house and wrote a letter of thanks to our neighbour, giving
him so vivid a word-picture of the reception of his cabbages that he
felt inspired to play a practical joke on Cheon later on. One thing is
very certain—everyone enjoyed those cabbages including even Cheon and
the goats.
Of course we had cabbage for dinner that day, and the day following, and
the next day again, and were just fearing that cabbage was becoming a
confirmed habit when Dan coming in with reports we all went bush again,
and the spell was broken. “A pity the man from Beyanst wasn’t about,”
Dan said when he heard of the daily menu.
It was late in September when Dan came in, and four weeks slipped away
with the concerns of cattle and cattle-buyers and cattle-duffers, and as
we moved hither and thither the water-melons leafed and blossomed and
fruited to Billy’s delight, and Cheon’s undisguised amazement and the
line party, creeping on, crept first into our borders and then into camp
at the Warlochs, and Happy Dick’s visits, dog-fights, and cribbage
became part of the station routine. Now and then a traveller from
“inside” passed out, but as the roads “inside” were rapidly closing in,
none came from the Outside going in, and because of that there were no
extra mails, and towards the end of October we were wondering how we
were “going to get through the days until the Fizzer was due again,”
when Dan and Jack came in unexpectedly for a consultation.
“Run clean out of flour,” Dan announced, with a wink and a mysterious
look towards the black world, as he dismounted at the head of the
homestead thoroughfare then, after inquiring for the “education of the
missus” he added, with further winks and mystery, that it only needed a
nigger hunt to round off her education properly but it was after supper
before he found a fitting opportunity to explain his winks and mystery.
Then, joining us as we lounged in the open starry space between the
billabong and the house, he chuckled: “Yes, it just needs a nigger hunt
to make her education a credit to us.”
Dan never joined us in the evenings without an invitation, although he
was not above putting himself in the way of one. Whenever he felt
inclined for what he called “a pitch with the boss and missus” he would
saunter past at a little distance, apparently bound for the billabong,
but in reality ready to respond to the Maluka’s “Is that you, Dan?”
although just as ready to saunter on if that invitation was not
forthcoming—a happy little arrangement born of that tact and delicacy of
the bush-folk that never intrudes on another man’s privacy.
Dan being just Dan rarely had need to saunter on; and as he sewed down
on the grass in acceptance of this usual form of invitation, he wagged
his head wisely, declaring “she had got on so well with her education
that it ’ud be a pity not to finish her off properly.” Then dropping his
bantering tone, he reported a scatter-on among the river cattle.
“I wasn’t going to say anything about it before the ‘boys,’” he said,
“but it’s time some one gave a surprise party down the river;” and a
“scatter-on” meaning “niggers in,” Maluka readily agreed to a surprise
patrol of the river country, that being forbidden ground for blacks’
camps.
“It’s no good going unless it’s going to be a surprise party,” Dan
reiterated; and when the Quiet Stockman was called across from the
Quarters, he was told that “there wasn’t going to be no talking before
the boys.”
Further consultations being necessary, Dan feared arousing suspicion,
and to ensure his surprise party, and to guard against any word of the
coming patrol being sent out-bush by the station “boys,” he indulged in
a little dust-throwing, and there was much talking in public about going
“out to the north-west for the boss to have another look round there,”
and much laying of deep plans in private.
Finally, it was decided that the Quiet Stockman and his “boys” were to
patrol the country north from the river while we were to keep to the
south banks and follow the river down to the boundaries in all its
windings, each party appointed to camp at the Red Lily lagoons second
night out, each, of course, on its own side of the river. It being
necessary for Jack to cross the river beyond the Springs, he left the
homestead half a day before us—public gossip reporting that he was
“going beyond the Waterhouse horse mustering,” and Dan finding dust-
throwing highly diverting, shouted after him that he “might as well
bring some fresh relays to the Yellow Hole in a day or two,” and then
giving his attention to the packing of swags and pack-bags, “reckoned
things were just about fixed up for a surprise party.”