3 a.m.
Of course we kept all the grass near the road eaten bare , to discourage travellers from coming that way . Such hapless wretches as did venture through Buckalong used to try hard to stray from the road and pick up a feed , but old Sandy was always ready for them , and would have them dogged right through the run . This bred feuds , and bad language , and personal combats between us and the drovers , whom we looked upon as natural enemies . The men who came through with mobs of cattle used to pull down the paddock fences at night , and slip the cattle in for refreshments , but old Sandy often turned out at 2 or 3 a.m. to catch a mob of bullocks in the horse-paddock , and then off they went to Buckalong pound . The drovers , as in duty bound , attributed the trespass to accident -- broken rails , and so on -- and sometimes they tried to rescue the cattle , which again bred strife and police-court summonses . Besides having a particular aversion to drovers , old M'Gregor had a general `` down '' on the young Australians whom he comprehensively described as a `` feckless , horrse-dealin ' , horrse-stealin ' , crawlin ' lot o ' wretches . '' According to him , a native-born would sooner work a horse to death than work for a living any day .