Page:On Our Selection.djvu/191

Rh all in th' head." (He tapped his own skull with his finger).

"Where would I be now if I had n't used me head this last season?"

He paused for an answer. None came.

"I say," he continued, "it 's a mistake to think nothing's to be made at farming, and any man" ("Come to supper, D—ad!"—'twas Sal's voice) "ought t' get on where there's land like this."

"Land!" said the same man—"where is it?"

"Where is it?" Dad warmed up—"where isn't it?

"Isn't this land?" (Looking all round.) "Isn't the whole country land from one end to the other? and is there another country like it anywhere?"

"There is n't!" said the man.

"Is there any other country in th' world" (Dad lifted his voice) "where a man, if he likes, can live" ("Dad, tea!") "without a shilling in his pocket and without doing a tap of work from one year's end to the other?"

Anderson did n't quite understand, and the weird man asked Dad if he meant "in gaol."

"I mean," Dad said, "that no man should starve in this country when there's kangaroos and bears and"—(Joe came and stood beside Dad and asked him if he was deaf)—"and goannas and snakes in thousands. Look here!" (still to the weird man), "you say that farming"—(Mother, bare-headed, came out and stood beside Joe, and asked Anderson if Mrs.