two in the afternoon
Bush-fires had been raging in the vicinity during the week , and yesterday had come so close that I had been called out to carry buckets of water all the afternoon in the blazing sun . The fire had been allayed , after making a gap in one of our boundary fences . Father and the boys had been forced to leave the harvesting of the miserable pinched wheat while they went to mend it , as the small allowance of grass the drought gave us was precious , and had to be carefully preserved from neighbours ' stock . I had baked and cooked , scrubbed floors and whitewashed hearths , scoured tinware and cutlery , cleaned windows , swept yards , and discharged numerous miscellaneous jobs , and half-past two in the afternoon found me very dirty and very tired , and with very much more yet to do . One of my half-starved poddy calves was very ill , and I went out to doctor it previous to bathing and tidying myself for my finishing household duties . My mother was busy upon piles and piles of wearying mending , which was one of the most hopeless of the many slaveries of her life . This was hard work , and my father was slaving away in the sun , and mine was arduous labour , and it was a very hot day , and a drought-smitten and a long day , and poddy calves ever have a tendency to make me moralize and snarl .