right," said Ned, suddenly feeling a respect for this
grizzled drunkard. "We must all help one another. How was it?"

"Well," said the lad. "I met a friend of mine and he gave me sixpence and
this box of cigarettes. It was all he had. I've often slept here and so I
came and asked the old man to trust me the other half. He wouldn't listen
to it. I was going away when this gentleman came along. He only had
threepence more than his own bed-money but he persuaded the old man to
knock off threepence and he'd pay threepence. I thought I'd have had to
go to the Domain."

"But that's nothing," said Ned. "I'd just as soon sleep out as sleep in."

"I've never come down to sleeping out yet," returned the lad, simply.
"Perhaps your being a native makes a difference." Ned was confronted
again with the fact that the bushman and the townsman view the same thing
from opposite sides. To this lad, struggling to keep his head up, to lie
down nightly in the Domain meant the surrender of all self-respecting
decency.

"I shouldn't have brought up the subject. You understand me?" said the
drunkard. "But now it's mentioned I'll ask if you noticed how I talked
over that old scoundrel downstairs. You understand me? Where's that
flask? My God! I am feeling bad," he continued, sitting up on the bed.

"You're drinking too much," remarked Ned.

The man did not reply, but, with a groan, pushed the lad aside, sprang
from the bed, and began to retch prodigiously into the wash basin, after
which he announced himself better, lay down and took another drink.
Meanwhile the man in the far corner tossed and groaned as if he were
dying.

"You're friend's still worse," said the lad.

"He's just out of the hospital. I told him he shouldn't mix his drinks so
soon but he would have his own way. He'll be all right when he's slept it
off. A man's a fool who gets drunk. You understand me?"

"I understand you," said the lad. "I never want to get drunk. All I want
is work."

"Why don't you go up to Queensland?" asked the man, to Ned's hardly
suppressed indignation. "The pastoralists would be glad to get a
smart-looking lad like you. Good pay, all expenses paid, and a six
months' agreement! I believe that's the terms. You understand me?"

"I understand you," said the English lad. "I understand you perfectly.
But that's blacklegging and I'd sooner starve than blackleg. I ain't so
hard up yet that I'll do either."

"Put it there, mate," cried Ned, stretchi