The House and the Quarters should join forces that day, Cheon suggested, and dine under the eastern verandah “No good two-fellow dinner longa Clisymus,” he said.  And the blacks, too, must be regaled in their humpy.  “Must have Vealer longa black fellow Clisymus,” Cheon ordered, and Jack’s services being bespoken for Christmas Eve, to “round up a Vealer,” it was decided to add a haunch of “Vealer” to our menu as a trump card—­Vealers being rarities at Pine Creek.  Our only regret was that we lived too far from civilisation to secure a ham.  Pine Creek would certainly have a ham; but we had a Vealer and faith in Cheon, and waited expectantly for the Dandy, sure the Elsey would “come out top-fellow.”

And as we waited for the Dandy, the Line Party moved on to our northern boundary, taking with it possible Christmas guests; the Fizzer came in and went on, to face a “merry Christmas with damper and beef served in style on a pack-bag,” also regretting empty mail-bags—­the Southern mail having been delayed en route.  Tam and the Sanguine Scot accepted invitations to the Christmas dinner; and the Wet broke in one terrific thunderclap, as the heavens, opening, emptied a deluge over us.

In that mighty thunderclap the Wet rushed upon us with a roar of falling waters, and with them Billy Muck appeared at the house verandah dripping like a beaver, to claim further credit.

“Well?” he said again, “Me rainmaker, eh ?” and the Maluka shouted above the roar and din: 

“You’re the boy for my money, Billy!  Keep her going!” and Billy kept her going to such purpose that by sun-up the billabong was a banker, Cheon was moving over the face of the earth with the buoyancy of a child’s balloon, and Billy had five inches of rain to his credit. (So far, eleven inches was the Territory record for one night).  Also the fringe of birds was back at the billabong, having returned with as little warning as it had left, and once more its ceaseless chatter became the undertone of the homestead.

At sun-up Cheon had us in his garden, sure now that Pine Creek could not possibly outdo us in vegetables and the Dandy coming in with every commission fulfilled we felt ham was a mere detail.

But Cheon’s cup of happiness was to brim over that day, for after answering every question hurled at him, the Dandy sang cheerfully:  “He put in his thumb and pulled out a plum,” and dragged forth a ham from its hiding-place, with a laughing, “What a good boy am I.”

With a swoop Cheon was on it, and the Dandy, trying to regain it, said, “Here, hold hard!  I’ve to present it to the missus with a bow and the compliments of Mine Host.”  But Cheon would not part with it, and so the missus had the bow and the compliments, and Cheon the ham.