To see what he would do, I said—
“Billy Muck, I can make a fire quicker than you,” and striking a match on my shoe, I set fire to some grass. The myall ran forward eagerly to see how it was done, so I struck another and gave him a box for himself.
He sat down at once and was so fascinated with his new toy that he struck off all his matches one after the other, making little grass fires all around him, till he looked like a black Joan of Arc at the stake. When they were all gone he came and showed me the empty box, saying—
“Me bin finissem, Missus.”
I gave him some more and a stick of tobacco, and then followed Bett-Bett up to the house. I found her crocodile’s egg lying on the garden path, and picking it up, hid it in the office. When she came back and found it gone, she gave one quick glance at the ground, and then walked to the office door and stopped. She was not allowed in there.
“Missus,” she said, “which way you bin put him egg belonga crocodile?”
I said, “You left it in the garden, Bett-Bett,” and suggested that perhaps Sue had carried it off. “Might it Sue bin catch him, eh?”
“No more, Missus!” she said, grinning knowingly. “You bin put him longa office. Track belonga you sit down,” she added, pointing at my footprints, leading from the garden to the office. I saw it was no use playing “hide the thimble” with a little nigger girl who followed up my tracks, and I gave her back her precious egg. Once I had tried playing “hide and seek” with the lubras; but I could never by any chance find them, and they always tracked me up, so it was not much fun. Their favourite way of hiding was to lie flat down in the grass, with their limbs spread out till they looked like open pairs of scissors, with grass growing between the handle and the blades. If you have ever looked for a hoop that has fallen in the grass, you will know how hard it was to find these lubras— how hard and how interesting.
When I gave Bett-Bett her egg, she took it to the broody hen, and filled her cup of happiness to the brim by letting her sit on it.
After supper, Bett-Bett threw herself down on the grass and said—