‘Glad you think so. My mate is a person of experience, so is the dog. It isn’t hard to drive a flock of sheep, I find, with two good assistants.’ ‘Well, I don’t suppose you’d have made much hand of them by yourself. However, a man’s a man when you’re travelling with sheep on a road like this. Don’t you listen to those other vagabonds, and you’ll make a smart chap by and by.’ ‘Thank you,’ said Ernest; ‘I’ll try and keep as innocent as I can under the circumstances.’ The overseer rode off, puzzled as to whether the new hand was laughing at him or was ‘a shingle short.’ Slightly damaged people, whether from drink, disappointment, a lonely life, or the heat of the climate, were, unfortunately, not particularly scarce in the locality. ‘Whatever he is, he and that rowdy-looking card can keep their sheep and feed them first-rate,’ he said to himself, ‘and that’s all I’ve got to look out for. Perhaps the young one’s going jackerooing at Jedwood; if so, he has more sense than he looks to have.’ The month wore on with dreaminess and peace, so that Mr. Neuchamp began to think he would not be so unreasonably delighted to get to Garrandilla. Each day, soon after sunrise, they moved from camp at a pace extremely suitable to the thick coming fancies which filled the mind of Ernest Neuchamp during the first hours of the untarnished day. There was the glorious undisturbed sun, with autumnal tempered beams. On such endless plains Chaldean and Israelitish shepherds, in the world’s youth, had travelled or held vigil. No vast awe-striking ruins lay on these great solitudes. No temple eloquent of the elder races of the earth. But the stars burned by night in the all-cloudless dark blue dome as they sat in nominal watch, and Ernest mused of the silent kings of this mysterious human life, changeless destiny, till the morning star seemed to approach his solitary couch, as did that lonely orb which held converse with Morven, the son of Ossian. In the daily round of guiding and pasturing he learned much of the complex nature of the under-rated intelligence of the sheep. His companion, Mr. Jack Windsor, had cultivated a habit of observation, and knew, as gradually appeared, something, not always a little, of everything rural. ‘Rum things sheep, sir,’ he would remark, as he commanded Watch to abstain from troubling and signalled Mr. Neuchamp to come on to his side; ‘I always see a deal of likeness to the women about ’em. If they don’t want to do a thing you can’t drive ’em to it. No, not all the men and dogs in the country. If you want ’em to do anything particular, pretend you don’t wish ’em to do nothin’ of the sort. Give ‘em lots of fair play, that’s another good rule, same as women. When it comes to anything out-and-out serious, act determined, and let them have it, right down heeling, and all the fight you’re master of.’