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Updated: May 8, 2025
The man simply said, "No." "Go on, now!" Dad said, pointing to the rails. The man smiled at the wood-heap as he worked. Dad waited. "Ain't y' going?" he repeated. "Leave me alone when I'm chopping wood for the missus," the man answered; then smiled and muttered to himself. Dad left him alone and went inside wondering. Next day Mother and Dad were talking at the barn.
I got home about sunset next day, and, after tea, when I'd finished telling Mary all the news, and a few lies as to why I didn't bring the cart back, and one or two other things, I sat with James, out on a log of the wood-heap, where we generally had our smokes and interviews, and told him all about the buggy. He whistled, then he said
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.
A panel in the fence was broken. It had been broken for five years. Casey seemed to know it. He started mending that panel. He was mending it all the evening. Mother called to Joe to bring in some wood. Casey left the fence, hurried to the wood-heap, carried in an armful, and asked Mother if she wanted more. Then he returned to the fence.
Had the Darwin ladies seen me then, they would have been justified in saying, "I told you so." There was plenty of company at the wood-heap, but the consolation was doubtful in character.
But Swampy had got a suspicion somehow that one of those pennies had two heads on it, and he wasn't sure that the other hadn't two tails also, he suspected Brummy of some skill in "palming," so he picked up a chip from the wood-heap, spat on it, and spun it into the air. "Sing out!" he cried, "wet or dry?" "Dry," said Brummy, promptly.
He had brought over some dry wood with him, as much as the basket would hold; thinking that the peat-stack was probably all afloat, and the wood-heap wetted through. All were pleased at the prospect of keeping up a fire during this strange night. All agreed that the bridge-rope must be left as it was, while the flood lasted.
It had been lined with chaff-bags, and there were two stretchers left by some timber-getters or other Bush contractors who'd camped there last; and there were a box and a couple of three-legged stools. We carried the remnant of the wood-heap inside, made a fire, and put the billy on.
"Here! gone into the wood-heap!" yells the eldest boy a sharp-faced urchin of eleven. "Stop there, mother! I'll have him. Stand back! I'll have the beggar!" "Tommy, come here, or you'll be bit. Come here at once when I tell you, you little wretch!" The youngster comes reluctantly, carrying a stick bigger than himself.
At about daybreak then my first duties would take me to the wood-heap, with axe and saw, and subsequently to the scullery with a heaped barrow-load of fuel for the day. Arrived there I polished the household's boots and knives, washed my hands at Mrs. Gabbitas's immaculate sink a more scrupulously clean housewife I have yet to meet and proceeded to the feeding and milking of Bella.
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