Chapter 4
Dingo
was right. They didn't see Tassie for a long time. The next time they heard of
him, he was rumoured to be in jail for fraud back in his homeland. Dingo was sad for
his old mate, but relieved that he hadn't stayed with him long enough to get caught up in
anything like that. He and ozEkoala were getting on well with the extensions.
ozEkoala was no builder, but she had hired some local builders and some migrants to do the
job and Dingo was helping supervise them. The
wombats and beavers were tremendously hard workers and the job was done in no time.
ozEkoala spent most of her time keeping her regular customers supplied with her
craftwork, so she was very happy to have Dingo to help, and she watched with pleasure as
Dingo's confidence in his own ability to stick at a job rose steadily. Life went along happily for a time. There were plenty of new challenges to keep Dingo on his toes, and he experienced the satisfaction of achievement for the first time in his life. ozEkoala could see him maturing into a very wise dingo, worthy of her full confidence. Dingo could sense ozEkoala's approval and he revelled in it.
One
night ozEkoala noticed the lamp burning even later than usual in the workshop and went to
investigate. She found Dingo fast asleep at his workbench. He had been working
all day, and well into the night, every day for two weeks and ozEkoala had tried to stop
him. It looked like his body had said, "Enough!" and sabotaged him. Dingo
woke up when ozEkoala came in and grinned sheepishly. "OK, OK. I'll slow down a
bit!" The next day ozEkoala demanded that they have a talk. Dingo wasn't keen but he agreed, and they pulled up a couple of stumps around the campfire. ozEkoala loved having an open fire - she would sit for hours given the chance, and watch the dancing flames. They never ceased to fascinate her. This time, though she hardly noticed the flames as she stared into the fire. Her mind was full of her concerns for Dingo. "Dingo, remember when we first started working together? We agreed that God had set us a pattern to live by. Work hard all week, but then have a day off. You haven't been doing that." "I'm sorry ozE... I tried but it just didn't seem to work. I have so many orders to fill, I can't get it all done without working flat strap." "Dingo, that's not true. You chose to start working harder and harder - I watched you. What have you been trying to prove?" "I don't know ozE... something's got a hold of me. I can't seem to stop even when I want to now. Last night I was determined to leave early and have a night off... but I just couldn't get myself to go." "But what about the day off? Why did you stop that? We used to have nice times together - reading the manuscript, exploring, sleeping! I thought you were enjoying those times as much as me." "I was ozE! I just don't know what's got into me." "I think I know Dingo. Remember we read in the manuscript... If you do what is right, will you not be accepted. But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.
I think we need to get some help, Dingo. Who shall we ask?" "I don't need any help! I can do what's right! Don't worry, everything will be alright now - I just needed to remember what the manuscript said. Thanks ozE, you're a great friend!" ozEkoala remained silent. She wasn't so sure that Dingo was right, but it wasn't time to speak. Not yet.
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