‘“Oi must be walkin’ or foightin’!—Oi must be walkin’ or foightin’!—Oi must be walkin’ or foightin’!”
‘They say that he wanted to eat his Australian relatives before he was done; and the story goes that one night, while he was on the spree, they put their belongings into a cart and took to the Bush.
‘There’s no floury record for several years; then the Flour turned up on the west coast of New Zealand and was never very far from a pub. kept by a cousin (that he had tracked, unearthed, or discovered somehow) at a place called “Th’ Canary”. I remember the first time I saw the Flour.
‘I was on a bit of a spree myself, at Th’ Canary, and one evening I was standing outside Brady’s (the Flour’s cousin’s place) with Tom Lyons and Dinny Murphy, when I saw a big man coming across the flat with a swag on his back.
‘“B’ God, there’s the Flour o’ Wheat comin’ this minute,” says Dinny Murphy to Tom, “an’ no one else.”
‘“B’ God, ye’re right!” says Tom.
‘There were a lot of new chums in the big room at the back, drinking and dancing and singing, and Tom says to Dinny—
‘“Dinny, I’ll bet you a quid an’ the Flour’ll run against some of those new chums before he’s an hour on the spot.”
‘But Dinny wouldn’t take him up. He knew the Flour.
‘“Good day, Tom! Good day, Dinny!”