s throb of the heat-waves pulsing and splashing upon it, like
the ripple and rattle of shingle stones at the rush of retreating tides.
There was no wind, not even a breeze; and yet the heat came in wafts
and currents, as it comes from an open furnace-door as the up-draught
ebbs and flows. The tough, tanned skin of old Marmot glistened with a
faint moisture one moment as an extra hot wave rolled by, drying hard
and rough a second later as the parched air sucked up the moisture like
a greedy flame licks oil.

The life of the bush was silent, save for the grasshoppers and an
occasional stridulation from an energetic cicada (locust, as the
bush-term has it, and which, like many another bush-name, seems to have
been given because it was inappropriate, for the cicada is anything but
a locust, while the "grasshopper" is nothing else). The leaves of the
gums hung motionless, with their sharp edge turned to the sun-glare, so
as to let the fierce heat strike on the stems and curl the shed-bark
into long festoons--and puzzle the minds of the new chums why broad
leaves cast no shade. Under the folds of the shed-bark the lizards
cuddled asleep, and occasionally a tree-snake shared their shelter;
while far down, squeezing into the farthest corner, away from the heat
and glare, and away from their unwelcome neighbours, the green
tree-frogs spread their ball-pointed toes and turned their golden eyes
up to the light to watch the coiled mystery as they slept.

The iron of the store-roof popped and crackled now and then as a sheet
of "galvanized," expanding, strained on a nail and buckled. And yet from
further down the township road there came the whirr and shriek of
Smart's buzz-saw rending its way through hard-wood logs; the clang and
jangle of Cullen's hammers as they fell on iron and anvil; and more
sleepily, more drowsily, more in keeping with the hot languor of the
day, the hum of the children's voices as they chanted their task in
unison on the open verandah of the school-house. Marmot, listening and
heeding, thought, and the thoughts grew in importance in his mind and in
impressiveness, until, forgetful that the court was not sitting and that
he was alone, he took the pipe from his lips, and, pointing the stem
down the dusty, sun-scorched track, exclaimed--

"The cause--the fust cause--the great cause--the cause of our being a
nation--_the_ nation; yes, bust me, _the_ nation--is--what?"

He waited for an answer from the silence