was taken of
his objections, and as soon as he was turned safely upside-down, Bill
and Sam ran straight at the puddin'-thieves and commenced sparring up at
them with the greatest activity.

'Put 'em up, ye puddin'-snatchers,' shouted Bill. 'Don't keep us
sparrin' up here all day. Come out an' take your gruel while you've got
the chance.'

The Possum wished to turn the matter off by saying, 'I see the price of
eggs has gone up again', but Bill gave him a punch on the snout that
bent it like a carrot, and Sam caught the Wombat such a flip with his
flapper that he gave in at once.

'I shan't be able to fight any more this afternoon,' said the Wombat,
'as I've got sore feet.' The Possum said hurriedly, 'We shall be late
for that appointment', and they took their grindstone and off they went.

[Illustration]

But when they were a safe distance away the Possum sang out: 'You'll
repent this conduct. You'll repent bending a man's snout so that he can
hardly see over it, let alone breathe through it with comfort', and the
Wombat added, 'For shame, flapping a man with sore feet.'

'We laugh with scorn at threats,' said Bill, and he added as a warning--

'I don't repent a snout that's bent,
And if again I tap it,
Oh, with a clout I'll bend that snout
With force enough to snap it.'

and Sam added for the Wombat's benefit--

'I take no shame to fight the lame
When they deserve to cop it.
So do not try to pipe your eye,
Or with my flip I'll flop it.'

[Illustration]

The puddin'-thieves disappeared over the hill and, as the evening
happened to come down rather suddenly at that moment, Bill said,
'Business bein' over for the day, now's the time to set about makin' the
camp fire.'

This was a welcome suggestion, for, as all travellers know, if you don't
sit by a camp fire in the evening, you have to sit by nothing in the
dark, which is a most unsociable way of spending your time. They found a
comfortable nook under the hedge, where there were plenty of dry leaves
to rest on, and there they built a fire, and put the billy on, and made
tea. The tea and sugar and three tin cups and half a pound of mixed
biscuits were brought out of the bag by Sam, while Bill cut slices of
steak-and-kidney from the Puddin'. After that they had boiled jam-roll
and apple-dumpling, as the fancy took them, for if you wanted a change
of food from the Puddin', all you had to do was to whistle twice and
turn the basin round.