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For hours we pitched near the restful green of the melon-beds, and as we pitched the Maluka ran fencing wires through two sides of the garden fence, while Tiddle'ums and Bett-Bett, hovering about him, adapted themselves to the new order of things, finding the line the goats had to stop at no longer imaginary.
Jackeroo being "funny man" in the tribe, was first favourite in exhibitions; but we could get no further pantomime that night, although we heard later from Bett-Bett that "How the missus climbed a tree" had a long run.
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.
To add to the general comfort, a gentle north-west breeze blew all through the day, besides being what Bett-Bett called a "shady day," cloudy and cool; and to add to the general rejoicing, before we had quite done with "Clisymus" an extra mail came in per black boy a mail sent out to us by the "courtesy of our officers" at the Katherine, "seeing some of the packages felt like Christmas."
So far Tiddle'ums had acted as fence, when we were in, at the homestead, scattering fowls, goats, and dairy cows in all directions if they dared come over a line she had drawn in her mind's eye. When Tiddle'ums was out-bush with us, Bett-Bett acted as fence. Johnny, generally repairing the homestead now, admired the garden and declared everything would be "A1 in no time."
The soup finished with, Cheon disappeared into the kitchen regions, to reappear almost immediately at the head of a procession of lubras, each of whom carried a piece de resistance to the feast: Jimmy's Nellie leading with the six pullets on one great dish, while Bett-Bett brought up the rear with the bread sauce.
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.
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