OPINIONS DIFFER

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21414, 11 February 1933, Page 19

OPINIONS DIFFER

By M.D,

"I reckon JfcLean is the meanest man under the Southern Cross," said Paddy bitterly. / Gwen smiled. " What has he been doing now? Counting the 6taples on the boundary fence to make sure that he has not US ed one morel' than you have? " " I wouldn't put that past him," was the gloomy reply. "No. At docking-time we marked one of his lambs—the ewe w as boxed' up with ours somewhere—and with my usual spotless honesty I rang h;m up and told him. Do you know what the blighter did yesterday ? Before returning my stragglers, he earmarked the best lamb for himself! Said it would put us square! Wait till next lambing! His half-starved brutes are always breaking my fences. I'll earmark a dozen for the cost of their keep." " What about your suggesting you send him another lamb to earmark in case his ewe had twins? " I'll see him—! " Gently, Paddy, there's lydies . present!" grinned Gwen. £ hawk 7 on lazy wing skimmed the Bcrub-dotted bank oeneath, and the orchestra of thousands of insects made ceaseless accompaniment to the occasional bleat of a worried sheep—to the casual eye a scene /of perfect peace that masked the endless wars of nature, the ruthless fight for existence of its teeming little lives. A hundred feet below, at the foot of the paddocks, the narrow river ran through its rock-lined walls. It gleamed a deep emerald in the shadow, but, reaching a broader bed, showed tiny white stipples on its golden brown, where the boulders checked and broke its onward flight. With the human temperament, also, it is often in its shallowest \ part that it shows the most easily ruffled surface and small obstructions become a menace to the smoothness of "its flow. So the doings of McLean had disturbed ■ Paddy's usual good temper and made him inclined to be quarrelsome. " Can you come into town with me to-morrow ?. " he asked. - " No, I'm afraid not. Dad wants me to help muster those young heifers. He is frightfully rushed just now." The man frowned. " I don't like to see you • doing that kind of work. A .woman has enough to do with the house jpnd flower garden. " Woman's place is in the home," inocked Gwen. " Dear, old-fashioned Paddy." "So it is. Women should never do fctock work—it's most unsuitable." " Sweet old thing, if the wives and mothers of pioneers had agreed with you it would have been a bad look-out for their menfolk. Besides, I love the mustering." " Times have changed, anyway. I Would not allow my wife to take a hand 1n my work." " I suppose she would have such a lot to do in keeping your, domestic affairs in order she- would not have a spare minute for a ride. Poor soul! " " Well, I reckon if a woman does her work properly it does take all her time." "Meaning I shirk mine? Alright, Paddy Fitzgerald, the next time you come up to the house I'll tell you I have been so busy with cattle .work I've had no time to bake cakes or scones and it is dry bread—and stale at that—l'll be after offerin' you,-ye ungrateful spalpeen!" But Paddy was having a. hard row to hoe and his Irish temperament, which either bore him up to heaven or plunged him to the nether regions, would not allow him a gleam of humour on this riunny day. " You'll be doing yourself an injury of some sort and be an invalid all your life," he went on. . "Is it afraid ye are of the cfoctor's bills your future wife will be running ye into, thin, poor crathure ? " 'Gwen mocked, trying to bring a smile to his absorbed face.. " No, I'm not joking, Gwen. I don't want yfltt to go out doing stock work. It's not a woman's job "and they'r§ doing no good-—" . .. " Doing no good! Dad reckons I'm as good or better than a hit of the lads he's had to work with! Well, I like that! " Fitzgerald had intended to say they .Were doing no good to themselves, but, seeing that Gwen had taken the words out of his mouth, he let her keep the impression he had given. "I think you-might come into'town [with me to-morrow, anyway. We don't often get a day together." " I can't let dad down when he's busy, Paddy." " When you marry me he'll have to get someone else to do his stock work," " He won't have me to keep then, so may be able to afford another man.". " Heavens knows when I'll be able to keep you either at ' the present rate of things." "How about going without a shepherd and marrying me instead ? '/ suggested the girl slyly. You can go on doing your own cooking as you are now, only *the indigestion it must bo giving would make you impossible to live with." The death of an uncle of Gwen's and the coming of his Widow to live with her brother solved the domestic arrangements of the girl's father, and there was nothing at home to prevent £he marriage. However, Paddv was very busy with a rush of WorkJ having had to reduce his staff to cut down expenses, and weeks lengthened into months without a definite date being fixed for their wedding. Under the stress of overwork and poor cooking his usually sunny nature became charged with gloom and all Gwen's cheerful teasing failed to rouse him. Fven the worst run of luck must come to an end and it was something like the old Paddy who rushed into the kitchen one day where Gwen was busy with her baking. " Gwen, darlin', get out the glory-box and canvass the neighbours for something decent in the way of wedding presents, for we'll be needing them before the month's out! Hutchinson's giving me my own price- for the bullocks in the. Long Spur and if we can't be married on that* then I'll be a" bachelor for' the rest of me days! " , The girl, with a spoonful of cake mixture in one hand, and the other coated with dough, was whirled from the table and round the narrow room. "0 Paddy, you madman, there'll be no doubt you've kissed the cook ! There's a currant on the end of your nose and a piece of candied peel twined round your ear and what the back of your neck looks like, I'd hate to tell you !" But tile man was indifferent to such details. " You've been, after licking your cookin' spoon, darlin', for it's vanilla I've got the taste of!-Thanks be, I'll soon be free of the fryin' pan for keeps! It's little use that other utensils have been get tin' these last few years since I took to bachin'!" he added. Gwen rubbed the last of the niiMure off the spoon upon his red hair. " If a good cook is all you're thinking about in getting a wife, you can go and hire one!" " Oh, but think of the wages she'd be after wantin', and she might be marrvin' me under threat of leavin' before I knew I was!"-

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" You flatter yourself, faddy Fitzgerald. Sui 4 ®, a good cook would have no need : t6 get married for the sake of a comfortable home!" Paddy burst, out laughing. " It's a great character you're giving yourself now, isn't it ? Is it the comfortable home you're marrying me for, or is it the bad cook yOu are that cannot get a position otherwise ?" When the time came for mustering the fat bullocks, Gwen asked to be allowed to help, but Paddy would not hear of it. " YOu've got your work cut out with your sewing and the getting the house ready. There's no need for you to do a man's, job. I've mustered on my Own before and with Gyp and Guy, I'll need ho outside helpers. I tried to get one or two men from round about, but with the sales on in Tikitapu I hadn't a hope." Being wise in her generation', Gwen did not argue the point, But on the day of the mustering, she was up at daylight and her work finished early. Saddling Judy, her own little pony, who knew as much about cattle work as any man on the place, she set off up the valley. Away on the ridg6 she could hear the crack of a whip and the thunderous bellowing of the driven bullocks. She knew the most dangerous part of the road they had to travel, the steep track over a cliff face to the riverhead. On the one side was McLean's boundary fence, and on the other, a bushfed stream had brought down great boulders from the hills and there distributed them among a treacherous piece of boggy ground. The girl climbed the rise and took up her position near the fen6e where a terrace of the hill made a landing ground above the track. Here the cattle would congregate before being urged to take the trail to the creek below. From the barking of the dogs she could hear there was trouble, even before the first beast came in sight. Tying Judy to the fence, she climbed higher and saw the reason for the noise. One stubborn beast had ensconced himself between two huge logs that had fallen one upon the other, making a Vrshaped refuge with a tangled mass of growth. Behind it, a buttress of grey rock protected his hind quarters- and there he stood impregnable, his lowered horns menacing the attacking dogs. Paddy called them to heel. To drive the beast out himself was an impossibility. Guy was his only hope. The man rode round the logs, lifting the dog by the collar, flung him upon the timber at the bullock's rear. The beast could not turn to defend himself, and must needs go forward. He did—with a rush. Gwen slipped down the bank and clambered into Judy's saddle. She was at the edge of the terrace as the ■ first of the unmanageable . mob flung itself down the slope on to the small flat with its one safe outlet. The bullock had bored his way into the thickest, of the* herd, sowing the panic that so easily seizes upon cattle moved from their home ground. Fighting among themselves, blindto their danger, they rushed along. A black streak that was Gyp skirted the edge nearest the drop to the bog and headed the cattle from the side; upon the other, the fence baulked them, but only one small determined figure stood between them and the precipitious edge of the cliff above the stony river bed, her one hope to turn and guide them to the top of the sloping track. Paddy, riding desperately to try and find a way through them to their head, gasped arid swore. His only chance lay upon the narrow edge of the creek bank where Gyp had cleared a path, but he paused least he force the mob further upon the girl and increase her danger. Gwe'n had no thought for herself. Her whip swung and cracked, checking a small section of the brutes nearest to her. Judy- sprang forward, swung and wheeled' without a conscious touch of bit or knee. The press of the beasts increased upon the creek bank, but here Gyp and Guy snarled and barked and bit. The first of"the bullocks, reached the track-top backwards, then, fortunately, turned and raced down, his companions streaming after him. The hind legs of one beast slipped over the cliff edge, but with a supreme effort he recovered procured a footing on the solid ground. Clouds of dust rose and rolling stones added their menace to the din, but Paddy, reaching the track-top, saw the last of the herd safely spreading out upon the wide shingle bed below. Whe-e-wl" gasped Gwen. "That was a near thing! Paddy, I thought the biggest slice of our wedding was going west!" Paddy lifted her down with his face showing white through the sweat and grime. " It would have done but for you, dear." I wasi afraid they might go through Mr. McLean's fence and he'd sue you for damages!" she cried gaily. " Gwen, I take back what I said about woman's place being t<he home! Y<?u've taught mo it's wherever she can give a helping hand to her man. You've sweet and forgiving to a surly brute, darling." "There's a lot of true words in the Bible, Paddy. If you want to live at peace it's as well to learn to* turn the other cheek, she smiled, suiting the action to the word. "Never mind the other cheek, there'll always be peace in our. house if.you 11 lend me your lips to silence the foolishness that comes from mine when the sorrows are upon me!" Gwen laughed. " There's not going to be any more sorrows ! Yours mostly sprang from indigestion caused by your own cooking, and with a wife whose whole time is to be spent in the house—!" But Paddy's resurrected sense of proportion made him show he was not above changing his mind wholeheartedly once he was convinced of an error.