The cow went on moaning bleakly for its
calf.
Hes hiding in the bedroom, if you want to know.
Give him apaling knife and a bit of number nine wire and hell build a humpyfit fer
Queen Victoria.
The telegraph had conquered theDead Heart of
Australia. But the self-absorbed lives of an adult world excluded him. >From now on
youre a paid hand here, Cabell told Larry. Night the old humpy burnt downit was, and
yer old man was just gettin better from bein blinded. I wont be boss if I live to be
a hundred, Gursey says.
Im not talking about liens and
gratitude.
When you pay them itll betime for you to say when
they cant work.
Had either of thesebeen true what could he have
expected from the future? Nobody wants to die in their bedmore than I do, she said
at last, but Larrys my son. After the dark years of the sixties the price of wool
was shootingup again.
But shewatched the door out of the corner of her
eyes and her hands shook. The shearers sitting atthe door listening to a man play
his accordion waved as he passed. Like the dung I put on the flowers to buck themup,
he told himself. Id be ashamed to nip ye for one thing more if itwasnt for
matches.
In two or three years timeIll send you home to
England with the girl. When Cabell came near the bed sheedged towards her
mother.
Nobody wants to die in their bedmore than I do, she
said at last, but Larrys my son.
Maybe my luck willchange, too, he murmured to the
child in his arms.
Look in the pot and youll see what your insidesare
like. But something was astir in the country now. Turning back to thehouse he saw
his fathers head cameoed against the light from theliving-room. All at once the
glitter of the day wastarnished over. So Mrs Todd departed next morning, protesting
feebly the deceit andinjustice of Cabell.
Sambo pulled his line in and baited it again
slowly.
And here a new resentment came to plague his long
hours on theveranda. The knotted dryretch of anger came up in his stomach again,
then he sheered off tothe back door. Cabell came up the steps and settled into the
rocking-chair with asigh.
James tried to make friends with Larry, but it was
not easy. Tisnothing more, I says, than a kid yeve never spoke baby lingo
to.
The shearers sitting atthe door listening to a man
play his accordion waved as he passed. He let his hand slide down his beard and
lieupturned and inert in his lap. James tried to make friends with Larry, but it was
not easy. And old enough to sign my cheques and pay the undertaker, Iexpect. The
shearers had knocked off for the day.