A Kaffer boy sat on the front seat
driving, and at his feet sat Doss, who, now and again, lifted his nose and
eyes above the level of the splashboard, to look at the surrounding
country; and then, with an exceedingly knowing wink of his left eye, turned
to his companions, thereby intimating that he clearly perceived his
whereabouts. No one noticed the cart coming. Waldo, who was at work at
his carpenter's table in the wagon-house, saw nothing, till chancing to
look down he perceived Doss standing before him, the legs trembling, the
little nose wrinkled, and a series of short suffocating barks giving
utterance to his joy at reunion.
Em, whose eyes had ached with looking out across the plain, was now at work
in a back room, and knew nothing till, looking up, she saw Gregory, with
his straw hat and blue eyes, standing in the doorway. He greeted her
quietly, hung his hat up in its old place behind the door, and for any
change in his manner or appearance he might have been gone only the day
before to fetch letters from the town. Only his beard was gone, and his
face was grown thinner. He took off his leather gaiters, said the
afternoon was hot and the roads dusty, and asked for some tea. They talked
of wool, and the cattle, and the sheep, and Em gave him the pile of letters
that had come for him during the months of absence, but of the thing that
lay at their hearts neither said anything.
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