Page:The Toll of the Bush.pdf/81

fully half of them being armed with brass instruments of one kind or another. A large native in a red jersey was walking majestically round the interior of the circle clapping a pair of bones and bawling out the refrain of the hymn: ‘Wass me—and I s’all be wha-iter than snow! Wass me—and I s’all be wha-iter than snow!’

‘Why, it’s Pine,’ said Geoffrey suddenly.

‘So it is,’ the Major agreed.

Geoffrey caught sight of Sandy lower down the hill, and the latter, observing him at the same moment, came up and sat down, clasping himself tapturously round the knees.

‘Isn’t he lovely?’ he exclaimed with his solemn chuckle. ‘I would not have missed this for anything.’

‘Your enthusiasm does you credit,’ Geoffrey said drily.

‘Pine is the latest convert and the most enthusiastic. Observe the intensity of his conviction as expressed in his calves. How Fletcher can stand there and retain his mental equilibrium passes understanding.’

‘No doubt the intensity of his convictions sustains him. After all, is this quite as ridiculous as it looks?’

‘More so,’ said Sandy.

‘Sincerity is entitled to respect.’

‘It is entitled to the respect it can command,’ said Major Milward. ‘We are not bound to respect a man because he has a sincere conviction that the earth is flat; neither are we under any obligation to respect him because he believes the Creator can be propitiated by more or less unmelodious howling.