But on the way home he had a talk with another man whom we might set down as a “chap.”
“I wouldn’t have thought the boss was a college man,” said Steelman to the chap.
“A what?”
“A University man—University education.”
“Why! Who’s been telling you that?”
“One of your mates.”
“Oh, he’s been getting at you. Why, it’s all the boss can do to write his own name. Now that lanky sandy cove with the birth-mark grin—it’s him that’s had the college education.”
“I think we’ll make a start to-morrow,” said Steelman to Smith in the privacy of their where. “There’s too much humour and levity in this camp to suit a serious scientific gentleman like myself.”
MACQUARIE’S MATE
The chaps in the bar of Stiffner’s shanty were talking about Macquarie, an absent shearer—who seemed, from their conversation, to be better known than liked by them.