"And what does your father do?"
"Dad? Oh, he looks after the place, an' goes to sales, an' does a bit of dealin'. Dad's a great judge of stock," said 'Possum proudly. "He does a lot of odd jobs of shearin' too—he used to be ringer in a shed on the Murray before he married Mother. He makes the place pay, all right—lucky he does, with all of us to buy clothes and tucker for! An' he potters round an' talks to men over the back gate. Men always have a heap to talk about, don't they?"
"They do," said Aileen promptly, sending a laughing glance at Tom. "It is their nature to."
"Well, you can't blame 'em," said 'Possum. "But I do think it's a good thing women aren't like that."
"But they are!" wailed Tom.
"Not in the Bush, anyhow. They simply wouldn't have time. It's a funny thing—no matter how busy a man is, he's always got time to prop up a gate an' yarn if any other man comes along. But a woman just can't—she'd think of the dinner not cooked, an' the spuds not dug, an' the washin' up not done, an' like as not no wood for the fire if she didn't cut it herself, an' the kids' pants not patched. An' they're all things that can't be left, 'cause men expects to be fed, an' if you leave pants when they begin to need patchin', there's mighty soon no pants to patch. Joe's pants, anyhow—an' Bill's."
"Did you do all the sewing, 'Possum?"
"Most of it," said 'Possum—"'cept what I just couldn't do, an' Dad had to buy those at the store. Then when Bert an' Polly started goin' to school I made him buy their dresses—I couldn't have 'em laughed at for being howlin' frights! There's always something very bad about the clothes I make: y' see, I never learned how, prop'ly. I just clamp 'em together somehow. It don't matter so much when no one ever sees them."
She flushed a little.
"I make all me own," she said. "It don't matter about me—an' I'd wear out anything but dungaree with the rough work outside. Dad's away a good bit, y' see, so then I have to run the place; an' when you're doin' odd bits of ploughin' or fencin' or scrub-cuttin', you can't bother about clothes. I know mine are pretty rum."