Missy's first feathers, however, were not such as she might stick in her hat, and her first blood was exceedingly ill-shed. To be sure, she knew no better until the deed was done, and the quaint6 dead bird with the big head and beak7 carried home in triumph to Mr. Teesdale. That triumph was short-lived.
"Got one at last!" cried Missy, as she dropped her prey8 at the old man's feet. Mr. Teesdale was smoking in the verandah, and he pulled a long face behind his smile.
"So I see," said he; "but do you know what it is you have got, Missy?"
"No, I don't, but I mean to have him stuffed, whatever he is."
"I think I wouldn't, Missy, if I were you. It's a laughing jackass."
"Yes? Well, I guess he won't laugh much more!"
"And there's a five-pound penalty for shooting him, Missy. He kills the snakes, therefore you are not allowed by law to kill him. You have broken the law, my dear, and the best thing that we can do is to bury the victim and say nothing about it to anybody." He was laughing, but the girl stood looking at her handiwork with a very red face.
"I thought I was to shoot everything," she said. "I thought that everything eat the fruit and things. I never knew I was so beastly cruel!"
She put away the gun, and spent most of that summer's day in reading to Mr. Teesdale, for whom she had developed a very pretty affection. They read longest in the parlour, with the window shut, and the blind down, and a big fly buzzing between it and the glass. The old man fell sound asleep in the end, whereupon Missy sat very still indeed, just to watch him. And what it was exactly in the worn and white-haired face that fetched the tears to her eyes and the shame to her cheeks, on this particular occasion, there is no saying; but Missy was scarcely Missy during the remainder of the afternoon.
That evening, however, had already been pitched upon for some 'possum-shooting, given a good moon. From the moment she was reminded of this, at tea-time, the visitor was herself again, and something more. It is saying a good deal, but they had not hitherto seen her in such excessively high spirits as overcame her now. She lent Mr. Tees-dale a hand to load some cartridges11 in the gunroom while the others were milking; but she was rather a hindrance12 than a help to that patient old man. She would put in the shot before the powder. Then she got into pure infantile mischief13, letting off caps under David's coat-tails, and doing her best to make him sharp with her. Herein she failed; nevertheless, the elder was glad enough to hand her over to the younger Teesdale when the time came, and with it a moon without a cloud. Neither Arabella nor her father was going, but three of the men were who worked on the place, and with whom John William was obliged to leave Missy alone in the yard while he went for the dogs. It was only for a minute or two; but the men were in fits of laughter when he returned. It appeared that Missy had been giving them some sort of a dance under that limelit moon.
"Down, Major! Down, Laddie!" John William cried at the dogs as they leaped up at Missy.
But Missy answered, "Down yourself, Jack9—I like 'em." And the three men laughed; in fact, they seemed prepared to laugh at Missy whenever she opened her mouth; but John William laughed too as he led the way into the moonlit paddocks.
Here the hunting-ground began without preliminary, for on this side of the farm there were trees and to spare, the land dipping in a gully full of timber before it rose to the high ploughed levels known as the Cultivation14. The gully was well grassed for all its trees, which were divers15 as well as manifold. There were gum-trees blue and red, and stringy-barks, and she-oaks, each and all of them a haunt of the opossum and the native cat. The party promptly16 surrounded a blue gum at the base of which the dogs stood barking, and Missy found herself doing what the others did—getting the moon behind the branches and searching for what she was told would look more like the stump17 of a bough18 or a tangle19 of leaves than any known animal.
"I believe it's a lie," said John William; "for Laddie barked first, and Laddie always did tell lies."
"Tell lies?" echoed Missy, with a puzzled grin.
"Yes, barking up trees where there's nothing at all—that's what we call telling lies; and old Laddie's started the evening well by telling one already."
"Not he," cried a shrill20 voice; and the youngest of the three farm-hands—a little bit of a fellow—stood pointing to a branch so low that everyone else had overlooked it.
"I see a little bit of a knot on the bough," said Missy, "but blow me tight if I see anything else!"
"That's it," cried John William. "That little knot is a native cat."
Missy lowered her gun at once. "Oh, I didn't come out," said she, "to shoot cats!"
"But they aren't cats at all," Teesdale explained (while his men stood and laughed); "they're much more like little leopards21, I assure you. We only call them cats because—because I'm bothered if I know why! It's not the name for them, as you'll say when you've shot this beggar. And you don't know the way they tear our fowls22 to pieces, Missy, or you wouldn't make so many bones about it; besides which, you won't get an easier shot all night."
"Oh, if that's the kind of customer, I'm on to try," said Missy. She raised her gun there and then, pressed it to her shoulder, and took aim at the black notch23 against the silver disc of the moon. The moonlight licked the barrels from sight to sight, getting into Missy's eyes, but there were barely a dozen feet between muzzle24 and mark. The report was quickly followed by a lifeless thud upon the ground; and when the smoke cleared, that notch was gone from the bough. Then one of the men struck a match to show Missy what she had done; and she had done it so effectually as to give herself a sensation which she concealed25 with difficulty. It was not pity; there was no pitying a spotted26 little horror with so sharp a snout and such devilish fangs27: but whatever it was, that sensation kept Missy modest in her success, so that she refused the next shot point-blank. John William took it, with the only possible result.
"A bushy." someone said, turning over the dead bush-tailed opossum with his foot It looked very big and soft and gray, lying dead in the moonlight. Missy found it in her heart to pity an opossum.
"Don't you skin them?" she asked at a respectful range. "Do you make no use of them after all?"
"It's so hard not to spoil them," John William said as he slipped another cartridge10 into the breech. He would have shown her how this particular skin had been ruined by the shot, but Missy said she quite understood.
He was beginning to think her squeamish. He asked her whether she had not had enough. She would not admit it, and took another shot to prove her spirit. This time she failed, and bore her failure with an equanimity28 which (in Missy) amounted almost to apathy29. That she was neither squeamish nor apathetic30, however, was demonstrated very suddenly while the night was still young.
A ring-tailed opossum had been brought to earth by a charge from the muzzle-loader of that stunted31 young colonial whose eyes were as sharp as his voice—he who had "mooned" the native cat. The others called him Geordie. The three of them were kneeling over the dead "ringy," and Missy was taking no more notice of them than she could help; only Geordie's was a voice that made itself heard. Missy had taken little stock of what the kneeling men were doing or saying until suddenly she heard:
"Young'uns it is! I told you there was young 'uns! That little beggar's as dead as his mother, but this one ain't. 'Ere, come off 'er back, can't yer? She ain't no more good to you now, do you 'ear?"
This was Geordie's manner of speech to the bunch of breathing fur that stuck tight to the dead doe's back, whence his fingers were busy disengaging it; but Geordie suddenly found himself on his back in the grass, and when he picked himself up it was Miss Oliver herself who was kneeling where he had knelt, and even going on with his work. It took her some moments, and when done her hands were bloody32 in the moonshine. Then, first she took that bit of warm fur and nursed it in her neck, stroking it with her chin. And next she turned a calm face up to her companions, and said distinctly to them all, "I call this a damned shame, so I tell you straight!" Indeed she was anything but squeamish.
She lowered her eyes immediately, undid33 three buttons, and slipped the small opossum into her bosom34. There she fixed35 it, with great care, but not the smallest fuss; and looking up once more, saw the three hirelings walking off together through the trees.
"I tell you," she called after them—shaking her fist at their backs—"I tell you it's the damnedest shame that ever was!"
The words rang clear through the clear night, then found an answer at Missy's side. "You are quite right. It is. And now won't you get up and come back home, Missy?"
"Jack!" cried the girl faintly, as she stumbled to her feet. "I'd quite forgotten you were there."
"I have been here all the time," said John William.
"Then do tell me what I've been saying," said Missy, anxiously, as she took his arm and they started homeward. "I couldn't see no more and keep my scalp fixed. I hope to God I haven't been swearing, have I?"
"Not you, Missy. You've only said what was right and proper. It was cruel, and I blame myself for the whole thing."
"No, no, no! I wanted some sport. I thought I could kill things, and never give a—no, never give a thought to 'em. Now I know I can't. That's all. I say, though, if I did use a swear-word, you won't give me away, will you? I don't know what I said, and that's all about it; but when I lose my scalp—ah well, I know I can trust you."
"Of course you can," said John William cheerily. And involuntarily he pressed to his side the hand that was still within his arm.
"I wouldn't say swear-words unless I did lose my scalp—you understand?" said Missy, coming back to it again.
"Of course you wouldn't; but you didn't."
"I'm not so sure. I wouldn't have your parents hear of it if I did; they'd take it so terribly to heart."
"They shall hear nothing—not that there's anything for them to hear."
"Now my parents are different; they swear themselves."
"Come, I can't credit that, you know!"
"But they do—like troopers!" persisted the girl. "It's the fashion just now in England. You may not know—how should you?"
"Missy," said John William, as he opened her the gate into the homestead yard, "it's impossible to tell when you're joking and when you're not."
"Aha, I mean it to be," cried the girl, bowing low to him, with the moon all over her. Then she stood up to her last inch, smiled full in his face, and turning, left him that smile to keep if he could. He would have followed her, but a burst of laughter in the men's room took him off his course, as good reasons occurred to him for calling in there first.
The room was a part of one of the farm outhouses. In each corner was a bunk36, and on each bunk a man (counting Geordie), the fourth being one Old Willie, a retired37 salt, who drove the milk into Melbourne in the middle of every night. Old Willie was sitting on the side of his bunk and chuckling so windily that the sparks were flying out of his cutty like fireworks. There was nothing, however, to show which of the other three was the entertainer, for each turned silent and looked guilty when John William entered and planted himself in their midst.
"I just thought I'd tell you," said he, with forced blandness38, "that there is to be no more 'possum-shooting on this place for good and all. The man who shoots another 'possum, I'll hide him with my own hands, and the man who catches me shooting one, he may take and shoot me. For it's a grand shame, men, it's a grand shame! You heard Miss Oliver say it was, didn't you?" he added sharply, turning to the three.
For the moment they looked blank; the next, it was such a fierce person who was repeating the question, with eyes so like pointed39 pistols, that one after the other of those three men meekly40 perjured41 their souls.
"Exactly," said John William, nodding his head in a deadly calm. "She said it was the grandest shame ever was; and if any man says she said anything else—well, he'd better let me hear him, that's all!"
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1
plucky
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| adj.勇敢的 | |
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chuckling
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| 轻声地笑( chuckle的现在分词 ) | |
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sieve
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| n.筛，滤器，漏勺 | |
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jaunty
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| adj．愉快的，满足的；adv.心满意足地，洋洋得意地；n.心满意足；洋洋得意 | |
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lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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6
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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7
beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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9
jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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10
cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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11
cartridges
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| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
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12
hindrance
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| n.妨碍，障碍 | |
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13
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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14
cultivation
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| n.耕作，培养，栽培（法），养成 | |
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15
divers
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| adj.不同的；种种的 | |
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promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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18
bough
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| n.大树枝，主枝 | |
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19
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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leopards
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| n.豹( leopard的名词复数 )；本性难移 | |
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22
fowls
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| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
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23
notch
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| n.(V字形)槽口，缺口，等级 | |
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24
muzzle
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| n.鼻口部；口套；枪(炮)口；vt.使缄默 | |
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25
concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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27
fangs
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| n.（尤指狗和狼的）长而尖的牙( fang的名词复数 )；（蛇的）毒牙；罐座 | |
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28
equanimity
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| n.沉着，镇定 | |
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29
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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apathetic
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| adj.冷漠的，无动于衷的 | |
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31
stunted
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| adj.矮小的；发育迟缓的 | |
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32
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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33
Undid
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| v. 解开, 复原 | |
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bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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35
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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36
bunk
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| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
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37
retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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38
blandness
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| n.温柔，爽快 | |
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39
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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40
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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41
perjured
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| adj.伪证的，犯伪证罪的v.发假誓，作伪证( perjure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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