"How's clearing in th' Long Mile Paddock?"
"Only bin down there once. Sam's doin' all right."
"Hear anything of the Gum Tree Gully clearing gang?"
"Message from Spencer, an' y' t'go down some time--as soon's y' can."
"Well, I want the land reclaimed this year, an' I want it gone on with. Never know what'll happen, Tom. I'd like for you to go down there, Tom. You c'n take th' young feller behind here with you, soon's the girls come home."
"Seems a likely enough young chap. Old George put in a good word for'm."
"Never you mind, s' long's his head's not toffy."
Jack heard it all. But if he hadn't heard it, he could easily have imagined it.
"Yes, you find out," he thought to himself, going dazed with fatigue and indifference as he huddled under the blanket, hearing the horses' hoofs clop-clop! and the rain splash on his shoulders. Sometimes the horses pulled slow and hard in the dark, sometimes they bowled along. He could see nothing. Sometimes there was a snort and jangle of harness, and the wheels resounding hollow. "Bridging something," thought Jack. And he wondered how they found their way in the utter dark, for there were no lamps. The trees dripped heavily.
And then, at the end of all things, Tom jumped down and opened a gate. Hope! But on and on and on. Stop!--hope!--another gate. On and on. Same again. And so interminably.
Till at last some intuition seemed to communicate to Jack the presence of home.--The rain had stopped, the moon was out. Ghostly and weird the bush, with white trunks spreading like skeletons. There opened a clearing, and a dog barked. A horse neighed near at hand. There were no trees, a herd of animals was moving in the dusk. And then a dark house loomed ahead, unlighted. The shay drove on, and round to the back. A door opened, a woman's figure stood in the candle-light and firelight.
Well, here they were, in the kitchen. Mrs. Ellis was a brown-haired woman with a tired look in her eyes. She looked a long time at Jack, holding his hand in her one hand and feeling his wet coat with the other.
"You're wet. But you can go to bed when you've had your supper. I hope you'll be all right. Tom'll look after you."
She was hoping that he would only bring good with him. She was all mother: and mother of her own children first. She felt kindly towards him. But he was another woman's son.