There was a twinkle, polite, but irrepressible, in 'Possum's eye.
"Well, he did say you'd need a bit of coaching," she answered. "Him an' me had a yarn about your place last night, an' we reckoned that the little paddock where your calves are running now 'ud be about the best for cultivation. How about puttin' oats into the highest part, an' then some field-peas? An' maize ought to do real well on that low-lyin' strip goin' down to the creek. That 'ud give you about all the feed you'll need. And there's a corner beyond the creek I've had me eye on this long while. I'd like to try lucerne in it." She paused for breath, looking at him eagerly.
"It sounds attractive—but large," said Tom, hesitating. "I don't know that I can take all that on, Miss O'Connor."
"Why, it ain't much—the whole paddock's not that big," said 'Possum. "I'll get it ploughed in no time with our disc-plough. An' Dad'll come an' help us get the crops in. Then there's potatoes—I s'pose you'll put them in in Mr. Gordon's little potato paddock?"
"Yes, I thought so," he said. "Look here, I'm not proposing to stand by with my hands in my pockets while you and your father do my work. Can you teach me to take a hand? I mean"—he flushed—"will I be too much of a new chum to learn to be decently useful?"
"Why, we'll teach you as easy as wink," she said. "There ain't nothing difficult about it, if you ain't afraid of work. I only know what me Dad's taught me—you'll beat me in no time. We"—she paused, and for the first time looked embarrassed—"we think it's jolly rough on you people comin' into a place like this, not bein' used to anything. If there's anything we can do, you just let us know."
"It seems to me we're casting ourselves on your mercy," he said: at which 'Possum looked blank, and murmured something unintelligible. Aileen broke in.
"We're terribly ignorant people, but we do want to learn," she said. "What about me, Miss O'Connor? Can you teach me how to make an enormous fortune out of fowls?"
'Possum grinned.
"Well, I ain't learned that meself, yet. But there is a bit to be made out of 'em, if you go the right way about it, an' have decent luck. We'll try, Mrs. Macleod. Me Dad said you wanted to buy some?"