see it, too--plainer than ever I did.

He had done a bit of fencing in his time, and we got talking about
timber. He didn't believe in having fencing-posts with big butts; he
reckoned it was a mistake. "You see," he said, "the top of the
butt catches the rain water and makes the post rot quicker. I'd back
posts without any butt at all to last as long or longer than posts
with 'em--that's if the fence is well put up and well rammed." He
had supplied fencing stuff, and fenced by contract, and--well, you can
get more posts without butts out of a tree than posts with them. He
also objected to charring the butts. He said it only made more
work--and wasted time--the butts lasted longer without being charred.

I asked him if he'd ever got stringy-bark palings or shingles out of
mountain ash, and he smiled a smile that did my heart good to see, and
said he had. He had also got them out of various other kinds of
trees.

We talked about soil and grass, and gold-digging, and many other
things which came back to one like a revelation as we yarned.

He had been to the hospital several times. "The doctors don't say
they can cure me," he said, "they say they might, be able to improve
my sight and hearing, but it would take a long time--anyway, the
treatment would improve my general health. They know what's the
matter with my eyes," and he explained it as well as he could. "I
wish I'd seen a good doctor when my eyes first began to get weak; but
young chaps are always careless over things. It's harder to get cured
of anything when you're done growing."