"Your eyes are saying it, and your left ear, not to mention the ends of your moustache." "Judy!" reproved Meg, whom something had made strangely quiet.
He pretended to be alarmed--shut his eyes, held his left ear, covered his moustache.
"What can they be saying ?" he said.
"'Oh that I was where I would be! Then I would be where I am not: But where I am I still must be, And where I would be I cannot.' "Meg, I WISH you would stop treading on my toes." So after that even Mr.Gillet grew gay and talkative, to show he was enjoying himself, and the bullocks caught the infection of the brimming spirits behind them, and moved a LEETLE bit faster than snails.

When they had crept along over about ten miles, however, the slow motion and the heat that beat down sobered them a little.
"Miss Meg, that silver-grey gum before you, guileless of leaves, indicates Duck Water." How glad they were to unfold themselves and stretch out their arms and legs on the ground at last.

No one had dreamt riding behind a bullock team could have been so "flat, stale, and unprofitable," as it was after the first mile or two.
Then the trolly continued its course.
"I doubt if they will be back before the sun goes down, if they don't go a little quicker," Mr.Gillet said; "it is lunch-time now." They were in a great grassed paddock that at one end fell abruptly down to the ravine and swamp lands known as "Duck Water." A belt of great trees made a shade at one side, and along the other was the barbed-wire fence that showed they had not got away from the Yarrahappini estate even yet: higher up was the lonely bark hut of one of the stockmen.
They went up in a body to speak to him before he joined the bullock team, and to view his solitary dwelling.
Just a small room it was, with a wide fireplace and chimney, where hung a frying-pan, a billy, a cup, and a spoon.

There was a bunk in one corner, with a couple of blue blankets on it, a deal table and one chair in the middle of the room.

Over the fire-place hung a rough cupboard, made out of a soap-box, and used to hold rations.