I say nothing could be fairer."
Sparrow, one of the Irishmen, spoke. He was a spare man, six feet
high, had a long thin face, a prominent nose, sloping shoulders, mild
blue eyes, and a most gentle voice. I knew him after he returned to
Gippsland and settled there. He was averse to quarrelling and
fighting; and, to enable him to lead a peaceable life, he carried a
short riding whip with a hammer handle, and kept the lash twisted
round his hand. He was a conscientious man too, and had a strong
moral objection to the proposal of killing and eating Spiller; but he
did not want to offend the company, and he made his refusal as mild
as possible.
"It's a think I wouldn't like to quarrel about with no man," he said,
"and the Lord knows I am as hungry as any of you; and if we die
through this misleading little chap I couldn't say but he would be
guilty of murdering us, and we might be justified in making use of
what little there is of him. But for my part I couldn't take my
share of the meat--not to-day at any rate, because you may
disremember it's Friday, and it's agen the laws of the Church to ate
meat this day. So I'd propose that we wait till to-morrow, and if we
grow very wake with the hunger, we can make use of the dog to stay
our stomachs a little while longer, and something better may turn up
in the meantime.
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