what the (complicated expletive) a cuss is! I'll get a blanket fer to lay on,"
he added; "this ground's sorter damp." And he went across to his wagon.

"He's got a curse on him as big as Mount Macedon, and he does n't know it,"
muttered Thompson.

"Bearing out the prophecy," said I aside to Willoughby, "that the sinner,
being a hundred years old, shall be accursed."

"You ought to show him a bit more respect, Mosey," remarked Cooper gravely.

"Well, to tell you the truth," replied Mosey frankly,
"I got no patience with the ole bunyip. Can't suffer fools, no road."

"Well, I don't want to be shovin' in my jor, but I'd take him to be more rogue
than fool," suggested Bum.

"Time he was thinkin' about repentin', anyhow," observed Dixon.

"Now, really Thompson--do you believe in these special malisons?"
asked Willoughby, as Price rejoined the company. "Are you so superstitious?
I should n't have thought it."

"I've good reason to believe in them," replied Thompson. "You asked me
this morning why I did n't have two teams. Now I'll tell you the reason.
It's because I'm not allowed to keep two teams. I've got a curse on me.
Many a long year ago, when I finished my second season, I found myself
at Moama, with a hundred and ten notes to the good, and the prospect
of going straight ahead, like the cube root--or the square of the hypotenuse,
is it? I forget the exact term, but no matter. Well, the curse came on me