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But the weaning took time, and proved most entertaining; and while the fowls were being taught by bitter experience to bend to Cheon's will, the homestead pealed with shoutings and laughter.
This is VEAL prime stuff! None of your staggering Bob tack"; and the Maluka and the Dandy bidding against him, to Cheon's delight, every one "came on" for some of everything; for veal and ham and chicken and several vegetables and sauces blend wonderfully together when a Cheon's hand has been at the helm.
"Me savey all about," he said, with a majestic wave of his hands, after expressing supreme contempt for Sam's caste and ways; so Sam applied for his cheque, shook hands all round, and withdrew smilingly. Sam's account being satisfactorily "squared," Cheon's name was then formally entered in the station books as cook and gardener, at twenty-five shillings a week.
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.
The rubbish disposed of, leaking water-butts, and the ruins of collapsed water-butts, were carried to the billabong, swelled in the water, hammered and hooped back into steadfast, reliable water-butts, and trundled along to their places in a merry, joyous procession. With Cheon's hand on the helm, cream rose on the milk from somewhere. The meat no longer turned sour.
In vain Cheon and the staff, the rejected, Bett-Bett every shadow and the missus, danced war-dances in the vegetable patch, and chivied and chased, and flew all ways at once; the grasshoppers had found green stuff exactly to their liking, and coming in clouds, settled, and feasted, and flew upwards, and settled back, and feasted, and swept on, leaving poor Cheon's heart as barren of hope as the garden was of vegetables.
After so much excitement Cheon feared a relapse, and was for prompt, preventive measures; but even the Maluka felt there was a limit to the Rest Cure, and the musterers coming in with Happy Dick's bullocks and a great mob of mixed cattle for the yards, Dan proved a strong ally; and besides, as the musterers were in and Happy Dick due to arrive by midday, Cheon's hands were full with other matters.
All afternoon we worked, and by the evening the dining-room was transformed: blue cloths and lace runners on the deal side-table and improvised pigeon-holes; nicknacks here and there on tables and shelves and brackets; pictures on the walls; "kent" faces in photograph frames among the nicknacks; a folding carpet-seated armchair in a position of honour; cretonne curtains in the doorway between the rooms, and inside the shimmering white net a study in colour effect blue and white matting on the floor, a crimson cloth on the table, and on the cloth Cheon's "silver" swan sailing in a sea of purple, blue, and heliotrope water-lilies.
A Day or two after Christmas, Dan came in full of regrets because he had "missed the celebrations," and gratified Cheon's heart with a minute and detailed account of the "Clisymus" at Pine Creek.
"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." "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.
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