Wilkins made a grimace as he said, "Them there arrows is made o' purpose to injer, master. They're a bit sharpish to bide when they bang in among a fellow's bones, and no doctor at hand to hack 'em out."
"Didn't I tell you, Master Gerald," said Ruth, "that it were a sin and a shame to make them things as would rive folks' flesh?"
"You are the girl that said that," answered Gerald, wild with his exploit; "and weren't you right, Ruth, astore! I meant them to rive; and see how the cowards have scampered off from them. Couldn't we go out now, Arthur? You know we want firewood."
"Do not be impatient, Gerald," replied Arthur, "we have fuel sufficient for one day, and we do not know how far our foes may have fled."
"Depend on't, Mr. Arthur," said Wilkins, "there's not a bush or a rock we see but has its man. We'll have to make shift to live on what we have for a bit. They'll soon be trying another dodge."
But though the usual coo-ee rang through the distant woods, mingled with the soft low wailing of the voices of women, the people were not seen again during a day which seemed unusually long to the anxious prisoners. The women cooked the pheasants with the last firewood, while Margaret filled a pillow-cover with the feathers for her father's head; but they had all become so accustomed to the hard earth, or at best to a bed of wiry grass, that even Mr. Mayburn regarded this pillow as a useless luxury, and an undesirable addition to the baggage, which rendered their journey so tedious.
"I will undertake to carry the light pillow," said Margaret, "and I trust we may again meet with a river to lighten the toil of our pilgrimage."
"If we found a wagon drawn by oxen, like them Mr. Deverell bought," said Jenny, "it would be fitter for my master and you, Miss Marget."
"And a few good horses for the rest of us, nurse," said Hugh; "but say what you will, papa, of the beauty and excellence of this new country, it is a great vexation that there are no beasts of burden. Neither elephant nor camel; not even a llama or a quagga which may be reduced to servitude. No four-footed creature have we yet seen but the kangaroo; and one never read, even in the Fairy Tales, of a man hopping along, mounted on a kangaroo."
"Nothing for it but trudging, Hugh," said Gerald, "unless we could meet with an ostrich to tame."