human
This sort, of course.
gpt
Can you ride too? The word
human
I can ride as well as he can--can't I, Sax?
gpt
You're better than I am, said Sax generously.
human
He is indeed, Mr. Darby.
gpt
Well, we'll see. I shan't be starting back till the day after to-morrow. What d'you say to a riding test?
human
It's sure a rough place, said Mick, when he had agreed to take the boys.
gpt
It's out on the edge of cattle country, the Musgraves west of us, and niggers--bad niggers, too. You'll wish you'd never come. He looked at the eager faces of the two lads and his own suffused with thoughts of the days when he was their age. He remembered all the hard years between, the trips on which he had only just come through alive, the terrors of thirst, the slow torment of being out of tucker, the scraps with blacks, the dreary homeless monotony of the desert, and he said earnestly:
human
I'm not urging you to come, mind. I know what you're in for; you don't. But if you want to be men, now's your chance.
gpt
It's not that I want to make a fool of you, explained Mick, as they lead the horses out of Archer's yard.
human
But there's not a properly quiet horse in my plant. It's no good your getting your swag ready if you can't ride. What d'you feel like?