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Updated: May 31, 2025
But Stumper roared at them. "A snail shell!" he boomed; "of course it's a snail shell! But did you ever see such a snail shell in your lives before? Look at the colour! Look at the shape! Put it against your ears and hear it singing!" He was furious with their lack of appreciation. "It's the common sort," said Uncle Felix, braver than the others, "something or other vulgaris "
Out of the hubbub single words emerged occasionally a "robin," "swallows," an "up-and-under bird" yet, strange to say, so far as Stumper was concerned, only one thing was said; all said the same one thing; he heard this one thing only as though the words and sentences they used were but different ways of pronouncing it, of spelling it, of uttering it.
The report came in only last night. It's a queer document. Here it is. Study it at your leisure.... It seems a big force of men have been working there for months. Piers have been put in only to sink." "Sink!" ejaculated Neale. "WHEW! That's a stumper! ... Chief, the survey is mine. I'll never forget how I worked on it." "Could you have made a mistake?" "Of course," replied Neale, readily.
Also, he was hard and angular in appearance, short, brisk in manner, square- shouldered, and talked like a General who was bothered about something in a battle. His opinions were most decided. His conversation consisted of negatives, refusals and blank denials. If Come-Back Stumper agreed with what was said, it meant that he was feeling unwell with an attack of curried-liver-trouble.
"Never knew such a day in all me life before," Stumper admitted frankly. "Couldn't simply couldn't stay indoors." He still retained a trace of challenge in his tone. But no one challenged. Judy took his arm. "So you came out?" she said softly. "Like us," said Uncle Felix. "Of course," Tim added.
Purple with the exertion of the search, both cheeks smeared with earth, neck-tie crooked, and old grey shooting-coat half-way up his back, Come-Back Stumper stood upright, and looked at them with shining eyes. He was the picture of a happy and successful man. "There!" he growled, and held out a hand, palm upwards, still trembling with his recent exertions. "Didn't I tell you?"
"Yes he says so teacher does." "How much is twelve times twelve?" That was a stumper! Peer hadn't got beyond ten times ten. "Do they teach you gymnastics at the school?" "Gym ? What's that?" "Jumping and vaulting and climbing ropes and drilling in squads what?" "But isn't it isn't that wicked?" "Wicked! Hahaha! Wicked, did you say? So that's the way they look at things here, is it?
"Off the government land, of course. All help themselves to what they want. Then there are the fish and the clams and oysters, and " "But what about the land for the claim?" That question was a stumper. The little wife never lost sight of that bargain made before we were married. Now I found myself praising a country for the agricultural qualities of which I could not say much.
Come-Back Stumper was excluded. They had taken him once, and he had said such an abominable thing that he was never allowed to visit it again. "A messy hole," he called it. Mr. Jinks had never even seen it, but, after his death in the railway accident, his remains, recovered without charge from the Hospital, had been buried somewhere in the scrap-heap.
Asking nothing for herself, she merely wanted to give away, give out. She said "Yes" to all that came her way; and all did come her way. To every one of them, to Stumper and Uncle Felix too, came a great conviction that they had passed nearer, somehow, to an everlasting joy. There was no hurry, life had just begun seemed singing everywhere about them. There was Unity.
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