My father had little difficulty in
swarming the sucker till he reached the bough on to which the flax was
tied, and soon found himself hauling up something from the bottom of the
tree. In less time than it takes to tell the tale he saw his own
familiar red blanket begin to show above the broken edge of the hollow,
and in another second there was a clinkum-clankum as the bundle fell upon
the ground. This was caused by the billy and the pannikin, which were
wrapped inside the blanket. As for the blanket, it had been tied tightly
at both ends, as well as at several points between, and my father
inwardly complimented the Professors on the neatness with which they had
packed and hidden their purchase. "But," he said to himself with a
laugh, "I think one of them must have got on the other's back to reach
that bough."
"Of course," thought he, "they will have taken the nuggets with them."
And yet he had seemed to hear a dumping as well as a clinkum-clankum. He
undid the blanket, carefully untying every knot and keeping the flax.
When he had unrolled it, he found to his very pleasurable surprise that
the pannikin was inside the billy, and the nuggets with the receipt
inside the pannikin. The paper containing the tea having been torn, was
wrapped up in a handkerchief marked with Hanky's name.
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