From Squire to Squatter: A Tale of the Old Land and the New
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placeevery day even in Bush-life. However, in the free-and-easy life oneleads in the Bush one soon learns to feel quite independent of the finerarts of the upholsterer.
In that last sentence I have used the adjective "easy;" but please toobserve it is adjoined to another hyphenically, and becomes one withit--"free-and-easy." There is really very little ease in the Bush. Nordoes a man want it or care for it--he goes there to work. Loafers hadbest keep to cities and to city life, and look for their _little_enjoyments in parks and gardens by day, in smoke-filled billiard-roomsor glaringly-lighted music-halls by night, go to bed at midnight, andmake a late breakfast on rusks and soda-water. We citizens of the woodsand wilds do not envy them. We go to bed with the birds, or soon after.We go to sleep, no matter how hard our couches may be; and we do sleeptoo, and wake with clear heads and clean tongues, and after breakfastfeel that nothing in the world will be a comfort to us but work. Yes,men work in the Bush; and, strange to say, though they go there young,they do not appear to grow quickly old. Grey hairs may come, and Naturemay do a bit of etching on their brows and around their eyes with thepencil of time, but this does not make an atom of difference to theirbrains and hearts. These get a trifle tougher, that is all, but noolder.
Well, of the three friends I think Archie made the best Bushman, thoughBob came next, then Harry, who really had developed his powers of mindand body wonderfully, which only just proves that there is nothing afterall, even for a Cockney, like rubbing shoulders against a rough world.
A dozen times a week at least Archie mentally thanked his father forhaving taught him to work at home, and for the training he had receivedin riding to hounds, in tramping over the fields and moors with Branson,in gaining practical knowledge at the barn-yards, and last, though notleast, in the good, honest, useful groundwork of education received fromhis tutor Walton.
There was something else that Archie never failed to feel thankful toheaven for, and that was the education his mother had given him.
Remember this: Archie was but a rough, harum-scarum kind of a Britishboy at best, and religious teaching might have fallen on his soul aswater falls on a duck's back, to use a homely phrase. But as a boy hehad lived in an atmosphere of refinement. He constantly breathed ittill he became imbued with it; and he received the influence alsosecond-hand, or by reflection, from his brother Rupert and his sister.
Often and often in the Bush, around the log fire of an evening, didArchie speak proudly of that beloved twain to his companions. Hislanguage really had, at times, a smack of real, downright innocenceabout it, as when he said to Bob once: "Mind you, Bob, I never was whatyou might call good. I said, and do say, my prayers, and all the likeof that; but Roup and Elsie were so high above me that, after coming infrom a day's work or a day on the hill, it used to be like going intochurch on a week-day to enter the green parlour. I felt my own mentalweakness, and I tried to put off my soul's roughness with my dirty bootsin the kitchen."
But Archie was now an excellent superintendent of work. He knew whenthings were being well done, and he determined they should be. Nothingriled him more than an attempt on the part of any of the men to takeadvantage of him.
They soon came to know him; not as a tyrant, but simply as one who wouldhave things rightly done, and who knew when they _were_ being rightlydone, even if it were only so apparently simple a matter as planting afence-post; for there is a right way and a wrong way of doing that.
The men spoke of him as the young Boss. Harry being ignored in allmatters that required field-knowledge.
"We don't want nary a plumbline," said a man once, "when the youngBoss's around. He carries a plumbline in his eye."
Archie never let any man know when he was angry; but they knewafterwards, however, that he had been so from the consequences. Yetwith all his strictness he was kind-hearted, and very just. He had thehappy gift of being able to put himself in the servant's place whilejudging betwixt man and master.
Communications were constantly kept up between the station and therailway, by means of waggons, or drays and saddle-horses. Among theservants were several young blacks. These were useful in many ways, andfaithful enough; but required keeping in their places. To be in any wayfamiliar with them was to lose their respect, and they were not of muchconsequence after that. When completed, the homestead itself wascertainly not devoid of comfort, though everything was of the homeliestconstruction; for no large amount of money was spent in getting it up.A Scotchman would describe it as consisting of "twa butts and a ben,"with a wing at the back. The capital letter L, laid down longwaysthus--I will give you some notion of its shape. There were two doors infront, and four windows, and a backdoor in the after wing, also havingwindows. The wing portion of the house contained the kitchen andgeneral sitting-room; the right hand portion the best rooms, ladies'room included, but a door and passage communicated with these and thekitchen.
This house was wholly built of sawn wood, but finished inside with lathand plaster, and harled outside, so that when roofed over with thoseslabs of wood, such as we see some old-English church steeples made of,called "shingles," the building was almost picturesque. All the more sobecause it was built on high ground, and trees were left around and nearit.
The kitchen and wing were _par excellence_ the bachelor apartments, ofan evening at all events.
Every thing that was necessary in the way of furnishing found its wayinto the homestead of Burley New Farm; but nothing else, with theexception of that of the guests'-room. Of this more anon.
The living-house was completed first; but all the time that this wasbeing built men were very busy on the clearings, and the sites weremapped out for the large wool-shed, with huge adjoining yards, where thesheep at shearing-time would be received and seen to.
There were also the whole paraphernalia and buildings constituting thecattle and horse-yards, a killing and milking-yard; and behind thesewere slab huts, roofed with huge pieces of bark, rudely but mostartistically fixed, for the men.
These last had fire-places, and though wholly built of wood, there wasno danger of fire, the chimneys being of stone.
Most of the yards and outhouses were separate from each other, and thewhole steading was built on elevated ground, the store-hut being not farfrom the main or dwelling-house.
I hardly know what to liken the contents of this store, or the inside ofthe place itself, to. Not unlike perhaps the half-deck or fore-cabin ofa Greenland ship on the day when stores are being doled out to the men.Or, to come nearer home, if ever the reader has been in a remote andrough part of our own country, say Wales or Scotland, where gangs ofnavvies have been encamped for a time, at a spot where a new line ofrailway is being pushed through a gully or glen.
Just take a peep inside. There is a short counter of the rudestdescription, on which stand scales and weights, measures and knives.Larger scales stand on the floor, and everywhere around you are heaps ofstores, of every useful kind you could possibly name or imagine, andthese are best divided into four classes--eatables, wearables, luxuries,and tools.
Harry is at home here, and he has managed to infuse a kind of regularityinto the place, and takes a sort of pride in knowing where all his waresare stored. The various departments are kept separate. Yonder, forinstance, stand the tea, coffee, and cocoa-nibs, and near them the sugarof two kinds, the bags of flour, the cheeses (in boxes), the salt (incasks), soda, soap, and last, but not least, the tobacco and spirits;this last in a place by itself, and well out of harm's way. Then thereis oil and candles--by-and-bye they will make these on the farm--matches--and this brings us to the luxuries--mustard, pepper of varioussorts, vinegar, pickles, curry, potted salmon, and meats of many kinds,and bags of rice. Next there is a small store of medicines of thesimplest, not to say roughest, sorts, both for man and beast, and roughbandages of flannel and cotton, with a bundle of splints.
Then comes clothing of all kinds--hats, shirts, jackets, boots, shoes,etc. Then tools and cooking utensils; and in a private cupboard,
quiteaway in a corner, the ammunition.
It is unnecessary to add that harness and horse-shoes found a place inthis store, or that a desk stood in one corner where account-books werekept, for the men did not invariably pay down on the nail.
I think it said a good deal for Sarah's courage that she came right awaydown into the Bush with her "little man," and took charge of the cookingdepartment on the station, when it was little, if any, better thansimply a camp, with waggons for bedrooms, and a morsel of canvas forgentility's sake.
But please to pop your head inside the kitchen, now that thedwelling-house has been up for some little time. Before you reach thedoor you will have to do a bit of stepping, for outside nothing istidied up as yet. Heaps of chips, heaps of stones and sticks andbuilders' rubbish, are everywhere. Even when you get inside there is anew smell--a limy odour--to greet you in the passage, but in the kitchenitself all is order