old stomach-ache they do be gettin’ in their conscience o’ toimes!”
Then his filly took charge and raced with him into the puffs of mist that lay on the heights.
Scannell’s receiving paddocks lay over three spurs and a rock-ridge and two gullies. Danny explained this once in the township.
“The arcumtect as was given the job o’ makin’ Mains had a high ’pinion o’ hisself,” he said. “An’ he was allers tryin’ ter git ter the top o’ it. That’s why there ain’t as much flat on Mains as yer cud iron yer tombstone shirt on.”
Lossin suggested that the flat had got into the Mains men instead, and Tod, who assisted at the after-result, gave Danny all the praise that was due to science and wind.
Through the dark shadows and the white mist and the shapeless grey clumps of manuka and tutu the cattle heard the sharp-spoken whip-talk, and the crack of branches as the horses crashed through. Uneasy mutters pricked each little group; the bulls stood apart, great heads low, eyes and ears alert, and a swift fore-foot pawing the earth. Then weaner, cow, and scrubber broke all ways, taking shingle slip and riven flint and tussock unerringly, and sending their bellowing fury down the wind to drown the gay mock of the stock-whips.
The white starshine gave to pale amber,
