t that means. We reached the water about two hours "after dark
"--swagmen know what that means. We didn't sit down at once and rest--we
hadn't rested for the last ten miles. We knew that if we sat down
we wouldn't want to get up again in a hurry--that, if we did, our
leg-sinews, especially those of our calves, would "draw" like red-hot
wire's. You see, we hadn't been long on the track this time--it was only
our third day out. Swagmen will understand.

We got the billy boiled first, and some leaves laid down for our beds
and the swags rolled out. We thanked the Lord that we had some cooked
meat and a few johnny-cakes left, for we didn't feel equal to cooking.
We put the billy of tea and our tucker-bags between the heads of our
beds, and the pipes and tobacco in the crown of an old hat, where we
could reach them without having to get up. Then we lay down on our
stomachs and had a feed. We didn't eat much--we were too tired for
that--but we drank a lot of tea. We gave our calves time to tone down a
bit; then we lit up and began to answer each other. It got to be pretty
comfortable, so long as we kept those unfortunate legs of ours straight
and didn't move round much.

We cursed society because we weren't rich men, and then we felt better
and conversation drifted lazily round various subjects and ended in that
of smoking.

"How came to start smoking?" said Mitchell. "Let's see." He reflected.
"I started smoking first when I was about fourteen or fifteen. I smoked
some sort of weed--I forget the name of it--but it wasn't tobacco; and
then I smoked cigarettes--not the ones we get now, for those cost a
penny each. Then I reckoned that, if I could smoke those, I could smoke
a pipe."

He reflected.

"We lived in Sydney then--Surry Hills. Those were different times; the
place was nearly all sand. The old folks were alive then, and we were
all at home, except Tom."

He reflected.

"Ah, well!... Well, one evening I was playing marbles out in front of our
house when a chap we knew gave me his pipe to mind while he went into a
church-meeting. The little church was opposite--a 'chapel' they called
it."

He reflected.

"The pipe was alight. It was a clay pipe and niggerhead tobacco. Mother
was at work out in the kitchen at the back, washing up the tea-things,
and, when I went in, she said: 'You've been smoking!'

"Well, I couldn't deny it--I was too sick to do so, or care much,
anyway.

"'Give me that pipe!' she said.