"Looks A1," The Maluka Said, Alluding To The Stiff, Aggressive Frock, And Took Me "Bush" With Him, Wearing The Blouse, And A Holland Riding Skirt That Had Also Proved Itself A True, Staunch Friend.

Dan, the Quiet Stockman, and the Dandy, had already gone "bush" in different directions; for with the coming of

The year's stores, horse-breaking, house-building, trunks and waggons had all stepped into their proper places - a very secondary one - and cattle had come to the front and would stay there, as far as the men were concerned until next Wet.

Cattle, and cattle only, would be the work of the "Dry." Dan and the Quiet Stockman, with a dozen or so of cattle "boys" to help them, had the year's musterings and brandings to get through; the Dandy would be wherever he was most needed; yard-building, yard-repairing, carting stores or lending a hand with mustering when necessity arose, while the Maluka would be everywhere at once, in organisation if not in body.

Where runs are huge, and fenceless, and freely watered the year's mustering and branding is no simple task Our cattle were scattered through a couple of thousand square miles of scrub and open timbered country, and therefore each section of the run had to be gone over again and again; each mob, when mustered, travelled to the nearest yard and branded.

Every available day of the Dry was needed for the work; but there is one thing in the Never-Never that refuses to take a secondary - place the mailman; and at the end of a week we all found, once again, that we had business at the homestead; for six weeks had slipped away since our last mail-day, and the Fizzer was due once more.

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