DAN TAKES ANOTHER BILLET.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10301, 4 November 1911, Page 1

DAN TAKES ANOTHER BILLET.

"While the few pounds that ho earned from. Duncan M'Clure lasted Dan lived I a lordly and independent life at home. | At sight of the little money, too, his wife cheered up and took a fresh and lively interest in the home and the things around her. She was inspired with renewed, confidence in Dan, and was filled'with great hopes of him for the future. And Dan's plans for the future promised big things. They were the forecasts of abundance and plenty, the key to veritable gold-mines. According to Dan he and his wife would cmo day own half the country and become tlio envy and admiration of the world. "I wish'd. wo had some of it just new." Mrs Dan murmured, with a faraway look in her eye?. "If it was only a 'undred pounds I'd be satisfied." '"' Oh, you want to go just a little too fast," Dan admonished gently. "Everything can't be done all in a day I But just you wait a bit." Thoy were interrupted by the arrival of John Sweeney, a dairyman from the head of the creek. "1 wasn't sure if I would find, you at home," Sweeney said, entering the door, " but I thought I'd eome down and soe." "Well, it's just n fluke you did find me here, Dan said, sliding a gin-case into position for his visitor to ait on, " for I've only just got home from M'Clure's (Dan had been home a month) where I've fcfien workin 1 this good while. But him an' me couldn't hit it ■ —at least his old woman and me couldn't. She's tji' blooroin' boss, and that didn't suit this child." "Ab, well," Sweeney said,_ getting down to the object of his visit, " you bettor come over to my place. I'm stuck badly for the want of a good man that can milk and do a bit o' ploughin' And no old woman to boss you round, either." Dan chuckled, while his wife said: , " It's a. wonder you never got married yourself, Mr Sweeney, and you with such a big dairy farm I" " Sure, no one would have an old fellow like me," Sweeney answered pleasantly. But Mrs Dan didn't agree with him. "I don't knows' much about that," sho said, r ' you're not that old yet." • "They'd, have y' quick enough, any amount <v' them.' 1 Dan assured him, " but if yer take my advico yer a jolly sight 'letter off without 'em." Sweeney laughed. "Well indeed, if thet ain't good," protested, Mrs Dan. Do you think 'e 'd be better off liisself if ho weren't married, Mr Sweeney ?" she asked. ''Oh, ho doesn't mean that," Mrs Iludd," Sweeney said, easting a furtive glance around the. ill-funiialxed abode.

" Indeed, I'd just like to see him gettin' his own meals, an' doln 5 his own washin '," and Mrs Dan laughed to her own satisfaction at tho mental picture she drew of her ungainly helpmate acting as his own cook and laundress. "Yes, but that uin't what I mean, ' Dan grunted. "I should think it wer' not." and Mrs Dan started on tho floor with the broom. Sweeney got down to business again. "Well," ho said to Dan, "will you come? I'm badly in need of someone. I'll give you 2os> a week, and if there's good returns a share of the profits at the end of the year, for I always believe in encouraging anyone who'works for me to do his best. It's a lot better for them, and better for mc," " Well," Dan drawled, untruthfully, " I was thinkin' of gettin' a herd together and makin' a start for meself." "You couldn't do better," Sweeney answered promptly. Sweeney was one of tho few fair-minded men "who liked to see others get along as well as himself. And ho added: "Have you the cows and plenty water on your place?" "Well, not yet," Dan answered slowly. " I've got me eye on some, thougn, and it wouldn't take long to put down a bore once I got goin' " " 'E was jist talkin' about it when y' come to th' door," Mrs Dan chipped in. "Well, he couldn't do better," Sweeney said again, and taking out his pipe waited for Daii's final answer. " Well yairs . . . still . . . o' course," came thoughtfully from Dan, as ho sat brooding over the proposition. Then, after a further interval, he looked up interrogatingly" at his wife. "Please yerself about it," • she said, " It's all th same to mo what yer do !" " What did yer say—twenty-five bob?" and looked no at Sweeney. "Twenty-five; that's what I always give to men." "Twenty-seven and six I was gettin'. from M'Clure," Dan muttered in'an incidental sort of way. Dan had received u pound a week from M'Clure. Sweeney opened his eyes wide. " 'Twas a big wage as wages s?o nowadays," he said thoughtfully. " 0' course I worked jolly well nip-ht an day for it," Dan observed casually. "Worked!" Mrs Dan put in with wifely emphasis, "'E was thin as a rake when 'e come home, an' I sez to him, I sez, if yer had stayed there much longers you'd 'a' been fetched home in yer coffin." - six,' _ Sweeney said, with business-like decision. Mrs Dan regarded her husband with a look of nervous anxiety. She seemed to have been suddenly filled with a fear that Dan would hesitate too long and lose tho billet! But Dan was in no hurry. Dan was not a man of excitable temperament. " An' what 'll th' bonus be?" he asked slowly. " According to the kind of year we have; ten pounds, fifteen pounds, perhaps twenty pounds." Mrs Dan could scarcely control herself. She slipped from one side of the room to the other in the hope of catching her breadwinner's eye and signalling him to accept the job. :. l'..Yr>,ir,s" Dan drawled, pensively hacking the edge of the pino table with a pocket knife, while he looked down along his nose. "It's tho fairest I can offer," Sweeney added, as he rose from the gin-caso, "and I'll -wager there's no other man in'the district getting as much." Mrs Dan clinched her hands together, anxiously. She seemed to see the beginning of the gold mine that Dan had planted in her breast. " But how am I to know if it's a good year or not?" Dan mumbled. "How are you to know?" cried Sweeney in an injured sort of voice. "God bless me, anyone would know! Won't you be taking th' milk to th' fact'ry every morning yourself, man? And do you think I would try to make 'out it was a bad year if it was a good one, just for the sake of doing a man out of a pound or two?" "Of course Mr Sweeney wouldn't think of such a thing!" Dan's wife affirmed positively. "Well, some of 'cm do y' know!" Dan observed doggedly. " I'm sorry to say that it has been done," Sweeney concurred, "but I'd sooner go on to the road and carry me swag than do it to any man!" "0' course y' would," from Mrs Dan, " an' 'e " (Dan) " knows well thet yer would!" "Oh, I know that right enough," slowly from Dan, and without lifting his eyes or ceasing whittling tho table. " Well, what's it to bo?'"' said Sweeney, pressing for a final answer. Dan lifted his head. "Well," he answered, " could'n' ye fix th' oonus ior certain at twenty quid?" "I could not!" firmly from Sweeney, " for them it would be no inducement for a man to do his best!" " Oh, I'd do me best," Dan assured him. "An' there's no one can say that I never did me best, no matter what I was at, bonus or no bonus," <md his eyes flashed with the fire and pride of hypocrisy. " I don't say for a moment that you didn't," came'from Sweeney, " and I wouldn't be here now offering you twenty-seven an' sis a week if I thought otherwise!" " There's no man'll do a better day's work than I will, I'll swear," and Dan spoko like a man whose honour and j feeling had been mortally wounded. "You misunderstand me. Rudd, oh, you misunderstand me altogether!" cried Sweeney, in an apologetic sort of way. " By cripes, if I can't do a good day|s work I. can't do anything!" Dan weiit on in a sulky manner. " I should think you could, and a lot better," said Sweeney, " a lot better." " No, I don't soy I'm any better, but I'll swear I'm as good, and I don't care whether th' man's a boss or what he is!" " Oh, they would all like t' get 'im to work for them," Mrs Dan confided aside to tho visitor. " Well. «o would I, so what is it to bo, Rudd?" "Oh, I dunno," indifferently from Dan. "It's no good wasting time, theu," and Sweeney took his leave. " Oh, you edjit of. a man 1" Mrs Dan squealed as soon as Sweeney was out of hearing, " ter leb sich a job as that go past yer! Yer can't think very much of ver wife an' child, so ver «m't!" " Pshaw ! Hold yer gab !" and Dan rose and followed Sweeney to where his horse was fastened. '"' Well, when would you want me to come?" he called out. "As soon as over you can come, Dan, to-night or to-morrow.morning if possible," Sweeney answered as he reached the saddle. " Right you are, to-morrow mornin', then," Da.u said, and returned to the house, whistling. " Oli I could hug yer for takin' it," and Mrs Dan threw her arms around her husband. "Gain! Gerrout with yer!" and Dan ducked from her embrace. "I'll get all th' muggin' I want from his bloomin' old cows." (To be continued.)