‘Salad in the bush?’ asked Ernest, with astonishment. ‘I never heard of any before.’
‘There’s always plenty, if you know where to look for it,’ gravely answered the stranger; ‘only men in this country are a deal more fond of making for the nearest public-house than of studying the book of nature, and learning what it teaches them. No man need fast in this country if he knows anything about the herbage and the plants he’s always riding and trampling over.’
‘You amaze me!’ said Ernest; ‘I always thought people ate nothing but meat in this country.’
‘When you’ve been longer in Australia’ (Ernest groaned) ‘you’ll find out, by degrees, that there’s a deal of difference in people here, much as, I suppose, there is in other countries. See here,’ he continued, taking up and cropping with great relish a succulent-looking bunch of greens, ‘here’s a real good wholesome cabbage—warrigal cabbage, the shepherds call it. Here’s another,’ uprooting a long dark-green fibrous-looking wild endive. ‘As long as you’ve these two and marshmallow sprout, you can’t starve. Many a pound it’s saved me, and you may take my word for it there’s more money made in this country by saving than by profits. I suppose you’re going to learn colonial experience at Garrandilla.’
‘How can he know that?’ thought Mr. Neuchamp. ‘These people seem to guess correctly about everything concerning me, while I am continually deceived about them.’
‘I am just bound on that errand,’ he answered, ‘though I cannot tell how you arrived at the fact.’
‘Well, I didn’t suppose you were going as a shepherd, or a stockman, or a knock-about man,’ said the stranger carelessly, ‘so you must have been going to learn the ways of the country.’
‘Do you know Mr. Jedwood?’ inquired Ernest.
‘Yes; heard of him. That’s a good manager; sharp hand; teach you all about stock; make you work while you’re there, I expect.’
‘I don’t mind that; I didn’t come up into the bush for anything else. It’s not exactly the place one would pick for choice for lounging in, is it?’