5
A LITTLE NONSENSE
HONEST LABOURER
“These barbed-wire fences bean’t no good,” said the farm labourer. “I wouldn’t have one of ’em on my place if I had my way.”
“Why not?” inquired the stranger. “They are cheap and strong and keep cattle in better than anything else.”
“That may be, sir,” replied the rustic, “but a man can’t sit down to rest on ’em.”
Molong Express, 1938
The old housekeeper threw open the door. Every part of her plump person seemed to beam. Rowland forgot he was on the threshold of his brother’s house, where propriety was paramount and a certain reserve preferred, and he embraced her warmly, wholeheartedly. She clasped his face delighted. “Mr. Rowland! Now don’t you look a sight! My goodness what have you done to yourself?”
“It’s just a scrape, Mrs. Kendall.”
“You
