e by him as old Baldy Thompson
the squatter. His hobby was politics, and his politics were badly boxed.
When he wasn't cursing the banks and government he cursed the country.
He cursed the Labour leaders at intervals, and seemed to think that he
could run the unions better than they could. Also, he seemed to think
that he could run parliament better than any premier. He was generally
voted a hard case, which term is mostly used in a kindly sense out back.

He was always grumbling about the country. If a shearer or rouseabout
was good at argument, and a bit of a politician, he hadn't to slave much
at Thompson's shed, for Baldy would argue with him all day and pay for
it.

"I can't put on any more men," he'd say to travellers. "I can't put on a
lot of men to make big cheques when there's no money in the bank to pay
'em--and I've got all I can do to get tucker for the family. I shore
nothing but burrs and grass-seed last season, and it didn't pay
carriage. I'm just sending away a flock of sheep now, and I won't make
threepence a head on 'em. I had twenty thousand in the bank season
before last, and now I can't count on one. I'll have to roll up my swag
and go on the track myself next."

"All right, Baldy," they'd say, "git out your blooming swag and come
along with us, old man; we'll stick to you and see you through."

"I swear I'd show you round first," he'd reply. "Go up to the store and
get what rations you want. You can camp in the huts to-night, and I'll
see you in the morning."

But most likely he'd find his way over after tea, and sit on his heels
in the cool outside the hut, and argue with the swagmen about unionism
and politics. And he'd argue all night if he met his match.

The track by Baldy Thompson's was reckoned as a good tucker track,
especially when a dissolution of parliament was threatened. Then the
guileless traveller would casually let Baldy know that he'd got his
name on the electoral list, and show some interest in Baldy's political
opinions, and oppose them at first, and finally agree with them and see
a lot in them--be led round to Baldy's way of thinking, in fact; and
ultimately depart, rejoicing, with a full nose-bag, and a quiet grin for
his mate.

There are many camp-fire yarns about old Baldy Thompson.

One New Year the shearers--shearing stragglers--roused him in the dead
of night and told him that the shed was on fire. He came out in his
shirt and without his wig. He sacked them all