From Squire to Squatter: A Tale of the Old Land and the New
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thinking perhaps he scented a customer, Mr Glorie himselfentered, all apron from the jaws to the knees.
"Ah! Mr Glorie," cried Archie. "I really couldn't leave Sydneywithout saying ta-ta, and expressing my sorrow for breaking--"
"Your indenture, young sir?"
"No; I'm glad I broke that. I mean the oil-jar. Here is a sovereigntowards it, and I hope there's no bad feeling."
"Oh, no, not in the least, and thank you, sir, kindly!"
"Well, good-bye. Good-bye Mr Myers. If ever I return from the BushI'll come back and see you."
And away they went, and away went Archie's feeling of gloom as soon ashe got to the sunny side of the street.
"I say," said Harry, "that's a lively coon behind the counter. Looks tome like a love-sick bandicoot, or a consumptive kangaroo. But don't youknow there is such a thing as being too honest? Now that olddeath-and-glory chap robbed you, and had it been me, and I'd calledagain, it would have been to kick him. But you're still the oldJohnnie."
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Now if I were writing all this tale from imagination, instead ofsketching the life and struggles of a real live laddie, I should haveascended into the realms of romance, and made a kind of hero of himthus: he should have gone straight away to the bank when he receivedthat 50 pounds from his uncle, and sent it back, and then gone off tothe bush with twopence halfpenny in his pocket, engaged himself to asquatter as under-man, and worked his way right up to the pinnacle offortune.
But Archie had not done that; and between you and me and the binnacle,not to let it go any further, I think he did an extremely sensible thingin sticking to the money.
Oh, but plenty of young men who do not have uncles to send themfifty-pound notes to help them over their first failures, do very wellwithout such assistance! So let no intending emigrant be disheartened.
Again, as to Winslow's wild way of borrowing said 50 pounds, andchanging it into 300 pounds, that was another "fluke," and a sort ofthing that might never happen again in a hundred years.
Pride did come in again, however, with a jump--with a gay Northumbrianbound--when Bob and Harry seriously proposed that Johnnie, as the latterstill called him, should put his money in the pool, and share and sharealike with them.
"No, no, no," said the young Squire, "don't rile me; that would be soobviously unfair to _you_, that it would be unfair to _myself_."
When asked to explain this seeming paradox, he added:
"Because it would rob me of my feeling of independence."
So the matter ended.
But through the long-headed kindness and business tact of Winslow, allthree succeeded in getting farms that adjoined, though Archie's was buta patch compared to the united great farms of his chums, that stretchedto a goodly two thousand acres and more, with land beyond to take up aspasture.
But then there was stock to buy, and tools, and all kinds of things, tosay nothing of men's and boys' wages to be paid, and arms and ammunitionto help to fill the larder.
At this time the railway did not go sweeping away so far west as it doesnow, the colony being very much younger, and considerably rougher; andthe farms lay on the edge of the Darling Downs.
This was a great advantage, as it gave them the run of the marketswithout having to pay nearly as much in transit and freight as the stockwas worth.
They had another advantage in their selection--thanks once more toWinslow--they had Bush still farther to the west of them. Not adjacent,to be sure, but near enough to make a shift of stock to grass lands,that could be had for an old song, as the saying is.
The selection was procured under better conditions than I believe it isto be had to-day; for the rent was only about ninepence an acre, andthat for twenty years, the whole payable at any time in order to obtaincomplete possession.
[At present agricultural farms may be selected of not more than 1280acres, and the rent is fixed by the Land Board, not being less thanthreepence per acre per annum. A licence is issued to the selector, whomust, within five years, fence in the land or make permanentimprovements of a value equal to the cost of the fence, and must alsolive on the selection. If at the end of that time he can prove that hehas performed the above conditions, he will be entitled to atransferable lease for fifty years. The rent for the first ten yearswill be the amount as at first fixed, and the rent for every subsequentperiod of five years will be determined by the Land Board, but thegreatest increase that can be made at any re-assessment is fifty percent.]
It must not be imagined that this new home of theirs was a land flowingwith milk and honey, or that they had nothing earthly to do but till theground, sow seed, and live happy ever after. Indeed the work to beperformed was all earthly, and the milk and honey had all to come.
A deal of the very best land in Australia is covered with woods andforests, and clearing has to be done.
Bob wished his busy little body of a wife to stay behind in Brisbanetill he had some kind of a decent crib, as he called it, ready to inviteher to.
But Sarah said, "No! Where you go I go. Your crib shall be my crib,Bob, and I shall bake the damper." This was not very poetical language,but there was a good deal of sound sense about Sarah, even if there wasbut little poetry.
Well, it did seem at first a disheartening kind of wilderness they hadcome to, but the site for the homesteads had been previously selected,and after a night's rest in their rude tents and waggons, work wascommenced. Right joyfully too,--
"Down with them! Down with the lords of the forests."
This was the song of our pioneers. Men shouted and talked, and laughedand joked, saws rasped and axes rang, and all the while duty wentmerrily on. Birds find beasts, never disturbed before in the solitudeof their homes, except by wandering blacks, crowded round--only keepinga safe distance away--and wondered whatever the matter could be. Themusical magpies, or laughing jackasses, said they would soon settle thebusiness; they would frighten those new chums out of their wits, and outof the woods. So they started to do it. They laughed in such loud,discordant, daft tones that at times Archie was obliged to put hisfingers in his ears, and guns had to be fired to stop the row. So theywere not successful. The cockatoos tried the same game; they cackledand skraighed like a million mad hens, and rustled and ruffled theirplumage, and flapped their wings and flew, but all to no purpose--thework went on.
The beautiful lorries, parrakeets, and budgerigars took little notice ofthe intruders, but went farther away, deserting half-built nests tobuild new ones. The bonnie little long-tailed opossum peeped down fromhis perch on the gums, looking exceedingly wise, and told his wife thatnot in all his experience had there been such goings on in the forestlands, and that something was sure to follow it; his wife might mark hiswords for that. The wonga-wongas grumbled dreadfully; but great hawksflew high in the air, swooping round and round against the sun, as theyhave a habit of doing, and now and then gave vent to a shrill cry whichwas more of exultation than anything else. "There will be dead bones topick before long." That is what the hawks thought. Snakes now and thengot angrily up, puffed and blew a bit, but immediately decamped into thedenser cover.
The dingoes kept their minds to themselves until night fell, and thestars came out; the constellation called the Southern Cross spangled theheaven's dark blue, then the dingoes lifted up their voices and wept;and, oh, such weeping! Whoso has never heard a concert of Australianwild dogs can have no conception of the noise these animals are capableof. Whoso has once heard it, and gone to sleep towards the end of it,will never afterwards complain of the harmless musical reunions of ourLondon cats.
But sleep is often impossible. You have got just to lie in bed andwonder what in the name of mystery they do it for. They seem to quarrelover the key-note, and lose it, and try for it, and get it again, andagain go off into a chorus that would "ding doon" Tantallan Castle. Andwhen you do doze off at last, as likely as not, you will dream ofhowling winds and hungry wolves ti
ll it is grey daylight in the morning.
CHAPTER NINETEEN.
BURLEY NEW FARM.
There was so much to be done before things could be got "straight" onthe new station, that the days and weeks flew by at a wonderful pace. Ipity the man or boy who is reduced to the expedient of killing time.Why if one is only pleasantly and usefully occupied, or engaged ininteresting pursuits, time kills itself, and we wonder where it has goneto.
If I were to enter into a minute description of the setting-up of thestock and agricultural farm, chapter after chapter would have to bewritten, and still I should not have finished. I do not think it wouldbe unprofitable reading either, nor such as one would feel inclined toskip. But as there are a deal of different ways of building andfurnishing new places the plan adopted by the three friends might not beconsidered the best after all. Besides, improvements are taking