These kind of people will stand up for you all the days of your life, and stick to you till the very last moment, no matter what you turn out to be. Well, there’s something pleasant in it; and it makes you think human nature ain’t quite such a low and paltry thing as some people tries to make out. Anyhow, when we went away our good little landlady and her sister was that sorry to lose us, as you’d have thought they was our blood relations. As for Jim, everyone in the house was fit to cry when he went off, from the dogs and cats upwards. Jim never was in no house where everybody didn’t seem to take naturally to him. Poor old Jim!

We bought a couple of horses, and rode away down to Sale with these chaps that had sold their cattle in Melbourne and was going home. It rained all the way, and it was the worst road by chalks we’d ever seen in our lives; but the soil was wonderful, and the grass was something to talk about; we’d hardly ever seen anything like it. A few thousand acres there would keep more stock than half the country we’d been used to.

We didn’t stay more than a day or so in Sale. Every morning at breakfast someone was sure to turn up the paper and begin jabbering about the same old infernal business, Hood’s cattle, and what a lot were taken, and whether they’ll catch Starlight and the other men, and so on.

We heard of a job at Omeo while we were in Sale, which we thought would just about suit us. All the cattle on a run there were to be mustered and delivered to a firm of stock agents that had bought them; they wanted people to do it by contract at so much a head. Anybody who took it must have money enough to buy stock horses. The price per head was pretty fair, what would pay well. and we made up our minds to go in for it.

So we made a bargain; bought two more horses each, and started away for Omeo. It was near 200 miles from where we were. We got up there all right, and found a great rich country with a big lake, I don’t know how many feet above the sea. The cattle were as wild as hares, but the country was pretty good to ride over. We were able to keep our horses in good condition in the paddocks, and when we had mustered the whole lot we found we had a handsome cheque to get.