Shoo!" (turning suddenly and unexpectedly
on Jacky): "Take your fingers out of the sugar!--Blast yer! that I
should say such a thing."

Neighbour: "But 'Lookin' Backwards"'

Missus: "There you go, Tom! Didn't I say you'd spill that tea? Go away
from the table!"

Selector: "I think 'Caesar's Column' is the only natural--"

Missus: "Shoo! Shoo!" She loses patience, gets up and fetches a young
rooster with the flat of the broom, sending him flying into the yard; he
falls with his head towards the door and starts in again. Later on the
conversation is about Deeming.

Selector: "There's no doubt the man's mad--"

Missus: "Deeming! That Windsor wretch! Why, if I was in the law I'd have
him boiled alive! Don't tell me he didn't know what he was doing! Why,
I'd have him--"

Corney: "But, missus, you--"

Missus (to the fowls): "Shoo! Shoo!"

THAT THERE DOG O' MINE

Macquarie the shearer had met with an accident. To tell the truth, he
had been in a drunken row at a wayside shanty, from which he had escaped
with three fractured ribs, a cracked head, and various minor abrasions.
His dog, Tally, had been a sober but savage participator in the drunken
row, and had escaped with a broken leg. Macquarie afterwards shouldered
his swag and staggered and struggled along the track ten miles to the
Union Town hospital. Lord knows how he did it. He didn't exactly know
himself. Tally limped behind all the way, on three legs.

The doctors examined the man's injuries and were surprised at his
endurance. Even doctors are surprised sometimes--though they don't
always show it. Of course they would take him in, but they objected to
Tally. Dogs were not allowed on the premises.

"You will have to turn that dog out," they said to the shearer, as he
sat on the edge of a bed.

Macquarie said nothing.

"We cannot allow dogs about the place, my man," said the doctor in a
louder tone, thinking the man was deaf.

"Tie him up in the yard then."

"No. He must go out. Dogs are not permitted on the grounds."

Macquarie rose slowly to his feet, shut his agony behind his set
teeth, painfully buttoned his shirt over his hairy chest, took up his
waistcoat, and staggered to the corner where the swag lay.

"What are you going to do?" they asked.

"You ain't going to let my dog stop?"

"No. It's against the rules. There are no dogs allowed on premises."

He stooped and lifted his swag, but the pain was too great, and he
leaned back ag