"The woman's SQUARE enough!" the Maluka interrupted; and Mac added, "And
so is the HOLE," with a scornful emphasis on the word "hole."

Dan chuckled, and surveyed the queer-looking building with new interest.

"It reminds me of a banyan tree with corrugated-iron foliage," he said,
adding as he went into details, "In a dim light the finished room would
pass for the trunk of the tree and the uprights for the supports of the
branches."

But the Maluka thought it looked more like a section of a mangrove swamp,
piles and all.

"It looks very like a house nearly finished," I said severely; for,
because of the verandah and many promises, I was again hopeful for
something approaching that commodious station home. "A few able-bodied
men could finish the dining-room in a couple of clays, and make a mansion
of the rest of the building in a week or so."

But the able-bodied men had a different tale to tell.



"Steady! Go slow, missus!" they cried. "It may look like a house very
nearly finished, but out-bush, we have to catch our hares before we cook
them."

"WE begin at the very beginning of things in the Never-Never," the Maluka
explained. "Timber grows in trees in these parts, and has to be coaxed