Such Is Life Joseph Furphy (ebook reader screen .TXT) đ
- Author: Joseph Furphy
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Thompson did as desired; and the first pull brought the wagon on to solid ground. Meanwhile Dixon and Willoughby had taken their team through, and were hurrying along. Cooper, growling maledictions on everything connected with Port Phillipâ âroads in particularâ âhad selected his route, and started his team. Thompson hooked on to his own wagon, and crossed safely, but with very little to spare.
âTouch-and-go,â he remarked to me; âanother bale would have anchored her. Ah! Cooperâs in it, with all his cleverness.â
Cooper was in it. The two-ton Hawkesbury, with seven-and-a-half tons of load, was down to the axle-beds; and the Cornstalk was endeavouring, by means of extracts from the sermons of Knoxâs soundest followers, to do something like justice to the contingency. Thompson sighed, glanced toward the ram-paddock, and hooked his team in front of Cooperâs. Mosey, who had been mending his broken chain with wire, now came over with Price.
âWeâll give you a lend of our whips,â said he with cheap complaisance. âTake the leaders yerself, Thompson. Stiddy now, till I give the word, or weâll be fetching the (adj.) handle out of her. Nowâ âpop it onâ âto âem!â
Then thirty-six picked bullocks planted their feet and prised, and a hundred and seventy feet of bar chain stretched tense and rigid from the leadersâ yoke to the pole-cap. The wagon crept forward. A low grumble, more a growl than a bellow, passed from beast to beast along the teamâ âsure indication that the wagon wouldnât stop again if it could be taken through. The off front wheel rose slowly on harder ground; the off hind wheel rose in its turn; both near wheels ploughed deeper beneath the top-heavy weight of thirty-eight balesâ â
âSheâs over!â thundered Cooper. âKeep her goinââ âitâs her onây chance!â
Then the heavy pine whipsticks bent like bulrushes in the driversâ skilful hands, while a spray of dissevered hair, and sometimes a line of springing blood, followed each detonationâ âthe libretto being in keeping. A few yards forward still, while both off wheels rose to the surface, and both near wheels sank till the naves burrowed in the ground; then the wagon swung heavily over on its near side.
âGoodbye, John,â said Cooper, with fine immobility. âThree-man job, by rights. Will you give us a hand, Collins?â For Price and Mosey were silently returning to their teams.
âCertainly, I will.â
âWell, itâs a half dayâs contract Iâll git some breakfast ready, while you (fellows) unloosens the ropes.â
Thompson and I released the bullocks from the pole, unfastened the ropes, and brought the wagon down to its wheels again. Then Cooper summoned us to breakfast.
âYouâll jist take sort oâ potluck, Collins,â he remarked. âI should âaâ baked some soda bread anâ boiled some meat last night, onây for beinâ too busy doinâ nothing. Laziness is catchinâ. Thatâs why I hate a lot oâ fellers campinâ together; itâs nothing but yarn, yarn; anâ your wagon ainât greazed, anâ your tarpolin ainât looked to; anâ nothin done but yarn, yarn; anâ you flogginâ in your own mind at not gittinâ ahead oâ your work. Thatâs where womenâs got the purchase on us (fellows). When a lot oâ women gits together, one oâ them reads out something religious, anâ the rest all wires in at sewinâ, or knittinâ, or some (adj.) thing. They canât suffer to be idle, nor to see anybody else idleâ âwomen canât.â Cooper was an observer. It was pleasant to hear him philosophise.
The work of reloading was made severe and tedious by the lack of any better skids than the poles of the two wagonsâ âwas, indeed, made impossible under the circumstances, but for Cooperâs enormous and wellsaved strength. Our toil was enlivened, however, by an argument as to the esoteric cause of the capsize. Cooper maintained that nothing better could have been hoped for, after leaving Kenilworth shed on a Friday; Thompson, untrammelled by such superstition, contended that the misadventure was solely due to travelling on Sunday; whilst I held it to be merely a proof that Cooper, in spite of his sins, wasnât deserted yet. Each of us supported his argument by a wealth of illustrative cases, and thus fortified his own stubborn opinion to his own perfect satisfaction. Then, descending to more tangible things, we discussed Cleopatra. Here we were unanimous in deciding that the horse had, as yet, disclosed only two faults, and these not the faults of the Irishmanâs horse in the weary yarn. One of them, we concluded, was to buck like a demon on being first mounted, and the other was to grope backward for the person who went to catch him after delivery of loading.
In the meantime, four horsemen, with three packhorses, went by; then two horse teams, loaded outward; then Stewart, of Kooltopa, paused to give a few words of sympathy as he drove past; then far ahead, we saw two wool teams, evidently from Boolka, converging slowly toward the main track; then more wool came in sight from the pine-ridge, five or six miles behind. By this time, it was after midday; and Cooper, having tied the last levers, looked round before descending from the load.
âSomebody on a grey horse cominâ along the track from the ram-paddick, anâ another (fellow) on a brown horse cominâ across the plain,â he remarked. âWonder if one oâ themâs Martin-anâ heâs rose a horse at the station?â
âI was thinking about tonight,â replied Thompson. âIâd forgot Martin. Duffing soon comes under the what-you-may-call-him.â
âStatute of Limitations?â I suggested.
âYes. Come and have a drink of tea, and a bit of Cooperâs pastry. His cookery doesnât fatten, but it fills up.â
âO you (adj.) liar,â gently protested the Cornstalk, as he seated himself on the ground beside the
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