~ 10 ~
Life SavingCassie waves her arms, herding the mob of cattle forward. On either side of her, Poppy and her father slap the rear ends of any stragglers on the edge of the herd.
Her father glances back. ‘Alex, get up to it. Stop daydreaming.’
Alex runs up from behind and steps into the line. ‘Giddy up,’ he yells at the cattle.
‘They’re not horses, you i***t,’ Cassie says.
‘I don’t care.’
Their father looks over at them and Alex waves his arms. ‘Come on, move up.’
The ruts in the ground tell the story of the herd passing through in muddier days, but today the cattle kick up powdery pale dust from between the tussocky grass. With only two bulls and the best of the breeders, the herd has been cheaper to feed through the dry. Bales of lucerne are getting harder to come by and more e
