“Well, that night I said to Harry, ‘Isn’t it hard, Harry.’ I says, ‘that in this free and enlightened land a man is put into gaol if he snares a rabbit?’
“‘Free and enlightened fiddlestick!’ that was Harry’s words. ‘I tell ye what it is, Bob,’ says he, ‘this country is played out. But I knows where there are lots o’ rabbits for the catching.’
“‘Where’s that?’ I says.
“‘Australia O!’ says Harry.
“‘Harry,’ says I, ‘let us pool up, and set sail for the land of rabbits—for Australia O!’
“‘Right you are,’ says Harry; and we pooled up on the spot; and from that day we haven’t had more’n one purse between the two of us, have we, Harry?”
“Only one,” said Harry; “and one’s enough between such old, old chums.”
“He may well say old, old chums, Archie; he may well put the two olds to it; for it isn’t so much the time we’ve been together, it’s what we’ve come through together; and shoulder to shoulder has always been our motto. We’ve shared our bed, we’ve shared our blanket, our damper and our water also, when there wasn’t much between the two of us.
“We got helped out by the emigration folks, and we’ve paid them since, and a bit of interest thrown in for luck like; but when we stood together in Port Jackson for the first time, the contents of our purse wouldn’t have kept us living long, I can assure you.
“‘Cities aren’t for the like of us, Harry,’ says I.