Just here the stakes,—which had rotted in the ground, gave out, and Tom and the top of the table came down together.
Dave laughed. Not just ordinary laughter, either. He sat down on the floor on his hams holding his sides and laughing, and then he laid on his back and kicked his heels over his head and laughed, until Tom, discovering that he had broken no bones, got up and kicked him.
And even then, every time he thought about Tom clawing the air, and the comical look of surprise on face, he laughed again.
They went round the site of the deserted homestead exploring. There was a well about twenty yards from the back of the kitchen, and they got a tin and attached it to a piece of rusty fence wire and dipped up some of the water, and it looked clear and tasted good.
“There’s plenty of wood an’ water,” said Dave, “an’ them’s the main things.”
“Yes,” said Tom, “an’ I spot a lemon tree with a lot of lemons on it.”
Dave spotted it at the same time, and they had a race for it.
There were plenty of lemons and they filled their pockets and chewed.
Anything in the shape of fruit is edible to the Australian bush boy. Tom and Dave thought the lemons sweet until they discovered an orange tree soon afterwards.