signed a specific agreement for a stipulated rate of payment,
irrespective of the weather. By the letter of the law, they had no
case. Whether they made little or much profit was not his affair. But
he was a just and kindly man, as well as reasonably politic. They had
shorn well, and the weather had been discouraging. He knew too that an
abrupt denial might cause a passive mutiny, if not a strike. If they
set themselves to thwart him, it was in their power to shear badly, to
shear slowly, and to force him to discharge many of them. He might have
them fined, perhaps imprisoned by the police-court. Meanwhile, how
could shearing go on? Dust and grass-seeds would soon be upon them. He
resolved on a compromise, and spoke out at once in a firm and decided
tone as the men gathered up yet more closely around him.

"Look here, all of you! You know very well that I'm not bound to find
you in fine weather. Still I am aware that the season has been against
you. You have shorn pretty well, so far, though I've had to make
examples, and am quite ready to make more. What I am willing to do is
this: to every man who works on till the finish and shears to my
satisfaction, I will make a fair allowance in the ration account. That
is, I will make no charge for the beef. Does that suit you?" There
was a chorus of "All right sir, we're satisfied. Mr Gordon
always does the fair thing." &c. And work was immediately resumed with
alacrity.

The clerk of the weather, too gracious even in these regions as far as
the absence of rain is concerned, was steadily propitious. Cloudless
skies and a gradually ascending thermometer alone were the signs that
spring was changing into summer. The splendid herbage ripened and
dried; patches of bare earth began to be discernible amid the late
thick-swarded pastures, dust to rise and cloud-pillars of sand to float