You know my joey 'possum?
Well, I'll fix him up into the awfullest kind of a blue devil, with feathers an' things.
We'll push him into Jo's room, and when Jo comes home an' strikes a light he'll spot him, an' think he's got delirious trimmens again.

That'll give him a shakin'.' 'My oath, won't it!' ejaculated Peterson.
Jacker was elated, and grinned far and wide.
'P'raps he'll go nippin' round, thinkin' he's chased by 'em like he did las' Christmas holidays,' suggested the elder McKnight gleefully.
This villainous scheme was the result of the boys' extraordinary familiarity with many phases of drunkenness.

Waddy was a pastoral as well as a mining centre, and strange ribald men came out of the bush at intervals to 'melt' their savings at the Drovers' Arms.

The Yarraman sale-yards for cattle and sheep were near Waddy too, and brought dusty drovers and droughty stockmen in crowds to the town ship every Tuesday.
These men were indiscreet and indiscriminate drinkers, and often a vagrant was left behind to finish a spree that surrounded him with unheard-of reptiles and strange kaleidoscopic animals unknown to the zoologist.

It must be admitted, too, that Joel Ham, B.A., was in a measure responsible for the boys' unlawful knowledge.