a weather-beaten, wiry old Englishman, whose face and accent, darkened
as the former was by the Australian summers of half a century, still
retained the trace of his native Devonshire. It was his boast that he
had shorn for forty years, and as regularly "knocked-down" (or spent in
a single debauch) his shearing money. Lawson represented the small
free-holders, being a steady, shrewd fellow, and one of the fastest
shearers. Billy May stood for the fashion and "talent," being the
"Ringer," or fastest shearer of the whole assembly, and as such truly
admirable and distinguished.

"Well now, men," quoth Mr Gordon, cheerily meeting matters half-way,
"what's it all about?" The younger delegate looked at Old Ben, who, now
that it "was demanded of him to speak the truth," or such dilution
thereof as might seem most favourable to the interests of the shed,
found a difficulty like many wiser men about his exordium.

"Well, Muster Gordon," at length he broke forth, "look'ee here, sir.
The weather's been awful bad, and clean agin shearing. We've not been
earning our grub, and--"

"So it has," answered the manager, "so it has. But can I help the
weather? I'm as anxious as you are to have the shearing over quickly.
We're both of one mind about that, eh?"

"That's all right enough, sir," struck in Abraham Lawson, who felt that
Ben was getting the worst of the argument, and was moreover far less
fluent than usual, probably from being deprived of the aid of the
customary expletives, "but we're come to say this, sir, that the
season's turned out very wet indeed. We've had a deal of broken
time, and the men feel it very hard to be paying for a lot of rations,
and hardly earning anything. We're shearing the sheep very close and
clean. You won't have 'em done no otherways. Not like some sheds where
a man can 'run' a bit and make up for lost time. Now we've all come to
think this, sir, that if we're to go on shearing the sheep well, and to
stick to them, and get them done before the dust and grass-seed come
in, that you ought to make us some allowance. We know we've agreed for
so much a hundred, and all that. Still as the season's turned so
out-and-out bad, we hope you'll consider it and make it up to us
somehow."

"Never knew a worse year," corroborated Billy May, who thought it
indispensable to say something. "Haven't made enough, myself, to pay
the cook."

This was not strictly true, at any rate, as to Master Billy's own
earnings;