ain and went away through the scrub, according to
which way their noses led them for the time being.

There was also, for one day, a tall, freckled native (son of a
neighbouring "cocky"), without a thought beyond the narrow horizon
within which he lived. He had a very big opinion of himself in a very
small mind. He swaggered into the breakfast-room and round the table to
his place with an expression of ignorant contempt on his phiz, his
snub nose in the air and his under lip out. But during the meal he
condescended to ask the landlord if he'd noticed that there horse that
chap was ridin' yesterday; and Stiffner having intimated that he had,
the native entertained the company with his opinion of that horse, and
of a certain "youngster" he was breaking in at home, and divers other
horses, mostly his or his father's, and of a certain cattle slut, &c....
He spoke at the landlord, but to the company, most of the time. After
breakfast he swaggered round some more, but condescended to "shove"
his hand into his trousers, "pull" out a "bob" and "chuck" it into the
(blanky) hat for a pool. Those words express the thing better than any
others we can think of. Finally, he said he must be off; and, there
being no opposition to his departure, he chucked his saddle on to his
horse, chucked himself into the saddle, said "s'long," and slithered
off. And no one missed him.

Danny had been there a fortnight, and consequently his personal
appearance was not now worth describing--it was better left alone,
for the honour of the bush. His hobby was that he was the "stranger's
friend", as he put it. He'd welcome "the stranger" and chum with him,
and shout for him to an unlimited extent, and sympathise with him, hear
of jobs or a "show" for him, assure him twenty times a day that he was
his friend, give him hints and advice more or less worthless, make him
drunk if possible, and keep him so while the cheque lasted; in short,
Danny would do almost anything for the stranger except lend him a
shilling, or give him some rations to carry him on. He'd promise that
many times a day, but he'd sooner spend five pounds on drink for a man
than give him a farthing.

Danny's cheque was nearly gone, and it was time he was gone too; in
fact, he had received, and was still receiving, various hints to that
effect, some of them decidedly pointed, especially the more recent ones.
But Danny was of late becoming foolishly obstinate in his sprees, and
less dispos