"No," replied Miss Laverock, "he takes you for the family doctor, and wants you to prescribe."
"Then," said Mr Tosh, "I shall prescribe a little more bark."
"Oh, Mr Tosh!" said Miss Laverock. "But what a delightful scene this is! The sight of the shearers with their bright faces and strong arms, the clatter of their sickles, and the rustle of the falling corn, have a strange effect upon me. I feel inclined to share their work. Such is the influence of good example."
"It's like the measles, infectious," said Mr Stocks.
"Or like the moral leaven," replied Miss Laverock, "which leaveneth the whole lump. But I am really ashamed to stand idle before all these industrious people. They must have a low opinion of us. Look at the glances which that stout woman in the striped shortgown is casting at us! She evidently pities me as a poor feckless idler, and thanks Providence that she has got a pair of strong arms and plenty of honest work to do."
"That's Peg Jackson," said Mr Stocks, "the randy of the parish; and I don't think that she is much given to thank Providence for anything."
"Oh," said Miss Laverock, "I don't know. I should say that she belongs to the sect of the muscular Christians. And she really looks a good all round woman."
"She goes by the nickname of The Bummer," explained Mr Stocks.
"That means the Queen Bee," said Miss Laverock; "and a very appropriate name, for she has got a fine swarm of busy bees around her. But look at that big black man in tattered attire! What an illustration of Shakespeare's phrase, 'looped and windowed raggedness.'"
"Yes," remarked Mr Stocks. "In one way at least he attends to ventilation."