working. Only when men of other races, dark-skinned, dark-haired, and
dark-eyed, passed his mental vision, was there the stillness of lazy
rest; and Marmot was pleased, for he loved to prate of the Anglo-Saxon
and the work they had done, and would do, for the world that gave them
birth.

His meditations were interrupted by the sound of many voices, and he
rose from his seat and went to the edge of the verandah, so as to
command a better view up the road. A wide column of dust, or a cloud
made up of columns, moved down the centre, the sunlight gleaming on the
dust-cloud, making it nearly opaque, and rendering the figures of the
men within it almost invisible. It approached rapidly, and part of it
rolled along as an advance guard, filling the air that Marmot breathed
till he coughed and swore. When the main body arrived, he felt it in his
eyes and nostrils, and the men who tramped on to the verandah and into
the store were covered with it, so that, as they moved, it came in small
puffs from their clothes and boots.

The men trooped past him and into the store, talking and chaffing, their
clothes toil-stained and ragged, their faces tanned nearly black by the
sun.

"Now, then, old brusher, where's your reach-me-downers?" one asked.

"Sling out a pound of twist as a start," another demanded.

"Two revolvers and a bag of shot," a third wanted; while others
clamoured for tent-calico, blankets, sheath-knives, and such like
necessaries, and, growing impatient at not being attended to at once,
tramped out on to the verandah, where they sat on their swags as they
filled their pipes.

"There's no rum in the show, boys," a man exclaimed, as he appeared in
the doorway. "It's all up at the pub."

"Come on, then," the last man to arrive, and who had just slung his swag
to the ground by the horse-posts, cried, as he swung his swag on to his
shoulder again.

Like a body of ants swarming on to a victim they had come from the road
to the store. Now they streamed out again and gathered in the roadway,
calling to one another, chaffing one another, and worrying those who
still lingered inside to hasten along and bring the storekeeper with
them.

Then, with Marmot in the lead, they passed slowly down the township
road, and as they passed the various centres of industry which had so
roused Marmot's admiration earlier in the day, a hush fell upon the
machinery and the workers ceased their labours, while the procession in
the directi