a knack in it,
like everything else. It looks easy enough, but it is not easy if you
don't know how to do it. It is like rowing; it looks the easiest thing
in the world until you try, and then you find that it is not easy at
all."

When work was done for the day Wilfrid and the Grimstones could scarcely
walk back to the hut. Their backs felt as if they were broken, their
arms and shoulders ached intolerably, their hands smarted as if on fire;
while the Maoris, who had each achieved ten times the result, were as
brisk and fresh as they were at starting. One of them had left work an
hour before the others, and by the time they reached the hut the flat
cakes of flour and water known as dampers had been cooked, and a large
piece of mutton was frizzling over the fire. Wilfrid and his companions
were almost too tired to eat, but they enjoyed the tea, although they
missed the milk to which they were accustomed. They were astonished at
the Maoris' appetite, the three natives devouring an amount of meat
which would have lasted the others for a week.

"No wonder they work well when they can put away such a lot of food as
that," Bob Grimstone said, after watching them for some time in silent
astonishment. "Bill and me was always considered as being pretty good
feeders, but one of these chaps would eat twice as much as the two of
us. I should say, Mr. Wilfrid, that in future your best plan will be to
let these chaps board themselves. Why, it would be dear to have them
without pay if you had to feed them!"

"Mutton is cheap out here," Wilfrid said. "You can get five or six
pounds for the price which one would cost you at home; but still, I do
not suppose they give them as much meat as they can eat every day. I
must ask Mr. Mitford about it."

He afterwards learned that the natives received rations of flour and
molasses and tobacco, and that only occasionally salt pork or fresh meat
were issued to them. But Mr. Mitford advised that Wilfrid should, as
long as they were at this work, let them feed with the men.

"You will get a good deal more out of them if they are well fed and in
good humour. When your people arrive the natives will of course have a
shanty of their own at some distance from your house, and then you will
put things on regular footing and serve out their rations to them
weekly. I will give you the scale usually adopted in the colony."

The second day Wilfrid and the Grimstones were so stiff that they could
at fi