Mahony bit his lip. "Come, come, now, what do you know about it?"
Jerry flushed and floundered, till Polly came to his aid. "He's been
wanting to speak to you, Richard. He hates the work as much as you did."
"Well, he has a tongue of his own.--Speak for yourself, my boy!"
Thus encouraged, Jerry made his appeal; and fearing lest Richard should
throw him, half-heard, into the same category as Ned, he worded it very
tersely. Mahony, who had never given much heed to Jerry--no one did--
was pleased by his straightforward air. Still, he did not know what
could be done for him, and said so.
Here Polly had an inspiration. "But I think I do. I remember Mr. Ocock
saying to me the other day he must take another boy into the business,
it was growing so--the fourth, this will make. I don't know if he's
suited yet, but even if he is, he may have heard of something else.--
Only you know, Jerry, you mustn't mind WHAT it is. After tea I'll put on
my bonnet and go down to the Flat with you. And Ned shall come, too,"
she added, with a consoling glance at her elder brother: Ned had
extended his huff to his second slice of pie, which lay untouched on his
plate.
"Somebody has always got something up her sleeve," said Mahony
affectionately, when Polly came to him in walking costume. "None the
less, wife, I shouldn't be surprised if those brothers of yours gave us
some trouble, before we're done with them."
Chapter VI
In the weeks and months that followed, as he rode from one end of
Ballarat to the other--from Yuille's Swamp in the west, as far east as
the ranges and gullies of Little Bendigo--it gradually became plain to
Mahony that Ned's frothy tales had some body in them after all.
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