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"When I was an understrapper," he was wont to say, "the land was overswarmed and eaten up by officialdom. I could not see the good meat wasted upon crawlers. 'Get to work, said I, 'or ye shall neither eat nor crawl! "'We must eat to beg we are not ashamed, to steal is the right of our noble Ritterdom, the crawlers replied. "'So, said I, 'bitte as to that we shall see!
Usurping the empyreal realm of the eagle, he assumes for a time the port and dignity of that majestic bird, and often is mistaken for him by ignorant crawlers upon the earth. It is only when he descends from the clouds to pounce upon carrion that he betrays his low propensities, and reveals his caitiff character.
"Then I made me a fine gallows, builded like that outside Paris, which I had seen once when on an embassy for Prince Dietrich. It was like a castle, with walls twelve feet thick, and on the beams of it room for a hundred or more to swing, each with his six feet of clearance, all comfortable, and no complaints. "Then came the crawlers and asked me what this fine thing was for.
The storms to-day are all on earth; and the powers of the air are looking down with hushed breath, horrified at the exceeding wickedness of the little crawlers on the planet we call men. They do not, as a rule, steal. Revenge revenge is all their thought. And why should they steal? Is it not all their own?
Neither he nor Jack Drew were particularly friendly with Browne or his push. The rest were crawlers, mostly pub spielers and bush larrikins, and the women were hags and larrikinesses. The town lived on cheque-men from the surrounding bush. It was a nice little place, taking it all round.
"What is it?" came in a sibilant whisper over Jack's shoulder; for he was only a few feet ahead of the other pair of crawlers. "Hadn't I better shoot with the flashlight now?" asked Toby eagerly, showing how he had not forgotten what his line of duty was, in spite of all the excitement attending their issuing from the tent.
An' I've seen 'em here goin' in fer drink an' all bad practices, and w'en I remonstrate with 'em, 'It's me temperament, says they, an' led me to believe by the airs of them that this temperament makes 'em superior to the likes of ordinary human bein's like me an' you; an' this temperament that makes 'em not fit to do honest common work, but is makin' 'em low crawlers, is the thing that at the same time makes 'em superior.
Those a little older the crawlers were in the pen, and those big enough to toddle were playing on the steps or before the house.
"Don't you dare try it, now, I tell you," warned the other, forgetting to even stutter in his indignation. "I'm going to tell you about it just when I'm good and ready. G-get that, now?" "Please commence then, Toby," pleaded the shorter boy. "Was it a real ghost you saw, or a snake? I'm terribly set against the crawlers, you remember." "S-shucks!
No, I don't mind for myself, fond as I am of loafing, sort of pottering round where the streets are in the hands of a pure police; for I've seen more, done more, thought more, up here, than in all my life before; and I've felt a country heaving under the touch of one of God's men it gives you minutes that lift you out of the dust and away from the crawlers.
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