CHAPTER XI.
Ahalala It was all settled that night, and some necessary purchases made.
Ahalala was twenty-three miles from Nobble, and a coach had been established through the bush for the benefit of miners going to the diggings;--but Mick was of opinion that miners ought to walk, with their swag on their backs, when the distance was not more than forty miles.
'You look so foolish getting out of one of them rattletrap coaches,' he said, 'and everybody axing whether you're going to pick for yourself or buy a share in a claim.

I'm all for walking,--if it ain't beneath you.' They declared themselves quite ready to walk, and under Mick's guidance they went out and bought two large red blankets and two pannikins.

Mick declared that if they went without swags on their backs and pannikins attached to their swags, they would be regarded with evil eyes by all who saw them.

There were some words about the portmanteaus.

Mick proposed that they should be left for the entire month in the charge of Mrs.Henniker, and, when this was pronounced impossible, he was for a while disposed to be off the bargain.