This Golden Land
“Stinky Sam was digging biscuits out of the embers while Nan was skinning the goanna and dropping juicy chunks of lizard meat onto the men's tin plates. Hannah watched them pass around a canvas water bag, drinking freely.
She was worried about their dwindling water supply. Scant winter rains had come through, keeping the barrels full, and Nan was adept at digging in dry creek beds and sucking up brackish water through a reed. But a rainless summer was coming. While there was enough water no...w for men and horses, soon it would be all gone. Hannah had held back some of the precious water as an eye wash, because of the constant threat of a conjunctivitis called "sandy blight," but even that would not last long.
And now they had an even bigger worry. She glanced back into the tent where Ralph Gilchrist lay moaning. He hadn't long to live, and it had nothing to do with the cave-in.
Hannah lifted her face to the cold wind. The air felt different this evening, strange. Was rain coming?MoreLess
She was worried about their dwindling water supply. Scant winter rains had come through, keeping the barrels full, and Nan was adept at digging in dry creek beds and sucking up brackish water through a reed. But a rainless summer was coming. While there was enough water no...w for men and horses, soon it would be all gone. Hannah had held back some of the precious water as an eye wash, because of the constant threat of a conjunctivitis called "sandy blight," but even that would not last long.
And now they had an even bigger worry. She glanced back into the tent where Ralph Gilchrist lay moaning. He hadn't long to live, and it had nothing to do with the cave-in.
Hannah lifted her face to the cold wind. The air felt different this evening, strange. Was rain coming?MoreLess
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