Sometimes there are big guns in the city that speak back, and some of
us are killed, and then there is all the more grazing for those that are
left. This is Fate. None the less, Two Tails is a great coward. That is
the proper way to fight. We are brothers from Hapur. Our father was a
sacred bull of Shiva. We have spoken.
Well, I ve certainly learned something tonight, said the troop-horse.
Do you gentlemen of the screw-gun battery feel inclined to eat when you
are being fired at with big guns, and Two Tails is behind you?
About as much as we feel inclined to sit down and let men sprawl all
over us, or run into people with knives. I never heard such stuff. A
mountain ledge, a well-balanced load, a driver you can trust to let you
pick your own way, and I m your mule. But--the other things--no! said
Billy, with a stamp of his foot.
Of course, said the troop horse, everyone is not made in the same
way, and I can quite see that your family, on your father s side, would
fail to understand a great many things.
Never you mind my family on my father s side, said Billy angrily, for
every mule hates to be reminded that his father was a donkey. My father
was a Southern gentleman, and he could pull down and bite and kick into
rags every horse he came across. Remember that, you big brown Brumby!
Brumby means wild horse without any breeding. Imagine the feelings of
Sunol if a car-horse called her a skate, and you can imagine how the
Australian horse felt. I saw the white of his eye glitter in the dark.
See here, you son of an imported Malaga jackass, he said between
his teeth, I d have you know that I m related on my mother s side to
Carbine, winner of the Melbourne Cup, and where I come from we aren t
accustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed,
pig-headed mule in a pop-gun pea-shooter battery. Are you ready?
On your hind legs! squealed Billy. They both reared up facing each
other, and I was expecting a furious fight, when a gurgly, rumbly
voice, called out of the darkness to the right-- Children, what are you
fighting about there? Be quiet.
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