Return to the High Country

by Tony Parsons

  ‘G’day, Mr White. Long time since I saw you last. G’day, Mrs Blake,’ he added, nodding at Gertie.

  ‘By gum, if it isn’t Shaun Covers,’ Wilf declared. ‘You still going to campdrafts, Shaun?’

  ‘Not so many these days, Mr White. Young Greg is the main drafter now.’

  ‘Shaun still wins a draft or two, Wilf,’ David said. ‘He’s my stud manager these days. We’re just about ready to start showing our cattle. The first of them are in the shed.’

  Catriona took David’s hand as they walked into the shed. She was very proud of what he had achieved, and especially so in the case of the Herefords. The red-and-white cattle were tethered at feed troughs and they looked a picture. Through a wall in the shed were some young heifers that were being prepared for showing.

  They continued down a gravelled path to the feedlot where Hereford steers were being fed, and David explained that these were being fed so that he could ascertain the meat quality of his cattle while the pick of them would probably be shown as steers. Next they took Wilf and Gertie for a tour of the property by car. The first calves by the Sydney champion bull were on the ground and looked like red-and-white mushrooms dotted about the paddock. Further out they also inspected the draft of Aberfeldy steers being topped off for market.

  ‘By gum, they’re a different-looking beast,’ Wilf observed.

  ‘Yes, they’re different, Wilf. Dad used to call them yaks. They weren’t his cup of tea at all. But they’re hardy and they’re valuable in ticky areas. We’ve got to improve them a fair bit, and we will.’

  It was then back to the Glen Morrison homestead, where Lew Hooper joined them. He and David cooked home-grown steaks and they sat about drinking mugs of tea and talked about life on the land, and horses. After lunch David and Catriona took Wilf and Gertie across to Lew Hooper’s block. Lew now had a shed up which served as temporary accommodation for when Lew and his wife stayed at Glen Morrison overnight. The balance of the shed was used for storing feed and property requisites. Lew also had a nice block of lucerne established.

  Wilf’s main interest was Lew’s horses, because he had had a hand in advising Lew which mares to purchase and which to leave alone. Lew had the breeding of the six mares in a folio and the two men discussed future breeding options for the best part of an hour. There were three foals on the ground from the first three mares Lew had purchased but because Lew did not have the financial means to pay for the best sires, he had had to use lesser entires of reasonable breeding.

  ‘If they aren’t top class I should still get one or two mares good enough to breed from, Wilf,’ Lew said.

  David’s next words took Lew aback. ‘If Ajana has a colt maybe we’ll keep him and Lew can use him. What do you think, Wilf?’ David asked.

  ‘By gum, you must be reading my mind, David. I was going to suggest the same thing,’ Wilf agreed. ‘If that filly foal you’re going to call Starana is as good as I think she will be, a brother could be the very thing. And maybe worth a lot of money, too.’

  They left Lew and drove back to Poitrel for afternoon smoko with Kate and Jean and listened to Wilf talk about David’s father, Andrew, and Andrew’s mother.

  ‘By gum, what a great woman she was. No wonder Andy was so straight. Straight as a die, he was. And what a worker. And Mrs Mac over there is a good ’un too. She wasn’t bush-reared but she’s a bottler woman. There’s plenty of good people about. Look at Kate and Jean here. David tells me Kate is as handy as any man.’

  Wilf was clearly enjoying himself. ‘Ah, by gum, I wish I were young again. Life is too bloomin’ short. David is going places and Ajana’s foal is going to win big races or my name’s not Wilf White. I knew it was right to let you have Poitrel, David. You’ve looked after my horses just as Andy promised you would. And it was damned good of you to let Lew Hooper have that block, David. A big thing, David.’

  ‘You let us have Poitrel, Wilf, and I was left a fortune with Aberfeldy. It wasn’t much to let Lew have two hundred hilly acres. Besides, I wanted a good neighbour to keep an eye on Kate and Jean,’ David said, and laughed.

  ‘You can’t fool old Wilf, David. Always wanted to hide your light under a bushel, as the saying goes. It was a big thing cutting that block off for Lew. A big thing, wasn’t it, Gertie?’

  ‘Yes, Wilf, a big thing,’ Gertie agreed. ‘Catriona, did you know that I used to give your husband piggyback rides?’

  ‘So Anne told me, Gertie,’ Catriona said as she took David’s arm.

  ‘What a boy he was. There never was such a boy for dogs and horses. Andy told me that if Anne knew what he got up to on horses, her hair would turn grey.’

  ‘David used to think I was a little pest, Gertie,’ Catriona said. ‘If he knew I was coming to High Peaks he’d clear out on his pony. That’s how I came to grief on Yellow Rock. I went looking for him on my new pony because I was going to show him that I wasn’t just a pony club rider.’

  Wilf laughed uproariously. ‘By gum, so that’s how it was. And the young scamp rode your pony off the mountain when everyone else wanted to put her down. That’s when I knew David was something special. Took a fall and hurt your shoulder, eh, David.’

  ‘It wasn’t much, Wilf,’ David said sheepishly. ‘I knew Cat wouldn’t want to lose her pony. It’s true I thought she was a little pest but she was the pick of the little pests.’

  ‘Thanks a lot, David,’ Catriona said, and slapped his arm.

  ‘Well he woke up, didn’t he?’ Wilf said, and winked at Catriona.

  ‘Finally, and with a lot of prompting, Wilf,’ Catriona answered. ‘I think even Anne had given up on David ever asking me to marry him.’

  ‘Well, by gum, I shouldn’t say it because it will give David a swollen head, but you’ve got one of the best young men the Australian bush has ever bred and the best one I know or am ever likely to know,’ Wilf said.

  ‘You’ll give him a big head, Wilf,’ Catriona said, glowing with pride.

  ‘Got to say what I think, girlie. Won’t be around to say these things too much longer … not even with the new pipework in me! The MacLeod family was always very good to us. Real decent bush people, Catriona. Never let you down and always ready to do you a good turn. Not enough of that in life, and the old ways are passing. People are too greedy now.’

  ‘We had better get you back so you can have a rest, Wilf,’ David said.

  ‘I suppose so,’ Wilf said, and they could tell he was reluctant to leave Poitrel.

  Out at the car the old chap stood for a few moments taking in the hills beyond the homestead and then, finally, the paddock where the last of his horses grazed contentedly.

  ‘Well, it wasn’t a bad life, even if I lost my brother and I didn’t breed a Melbourne Cup winner,’ Wilf said. And then he got in the front of the car beside David. If he had looked sideways he would have seen that both Kate and Jean were crying. It seemed to both women that this would be the last visit Wilf White ever made to Poitrel.

  ‘By gum, you must be proud of David, Mrs Mac,’ Wilf said that night. They had had another hearty dinner and were sitting in the High Peaks lounge room where Andrew MacLeod’s trophies still took pride of place.

  ‘Oh, Wilf, I am full of admiration for what he has achieved and the way he has developed personally. He has such big plans for the future and such hopes for his children,’ Anne said. ‘Yet sometimes I wonder if it wouldn’t have been better for him just to have had this place and Poitrel and to go to his dog trials and campdrafts. Of course, being left Aberfeldy made a huge difference financially. It also made a big difference to the Campbells,’ she said, and laughed. ‘David wasn’t the son of a battling hill grazier and shearer any longer; he was a wealthy man.’

  ‘By gum, you’re telling me.’

  ‘I do admire the way David has tried to get on with Angus Campbell for Catriona’s sake. And to give Angus his due, he has been very helpful to David. He helped him with stud cattle and introduced him to his sheep classer. David has learnt a
lot from Angus. Of course, David has helped Angus with his dog handling and breeding. Angus can still be difficult as the Campbells think themselves better than anyone else, but David won’t abide that nonsense.’

  ‘I reckon he wouldn’t. Can’t tell you how impressed I was by what I saw today. Everything tidy and then those lovely cattle at Glen Morrison. I said when I gave Ajana to David that he would be a legend one day. Your son is going to be a great man, Mrs Mac. Andy would be a proud man if he were here.’

  ‘We believe Andy is never far away, Wilf. I’ve seen David up on the knoll looking down at Andy’s grave and I know that he will never forget him. He was very depressed after Andy died, Wilf. Depressed even with his lovely new wife. But he came out of it and he has never looked back. I just hope that his children are all that he expects they will be. David doesn’t need to expand his interests further but he will because he says his children will need more land with the way costs are these days. The next thing he wants is a big place further out where he can breed replacement wethers and top off more of the Aberfeldy cattle. More land and animals means more worry, Wilf.’

  ‘Well, by gum, so it might be, I see that, but would you hold David back? Better to work for something than sit on your tail!’ Wilf said.

  ‘David is hardly sitting on his tail, Wilf. He’s got four properties to keep an eye on. Then he’s got his dogs and horses and now stud cattle. Stud sheep will be next. What if his children don’t want to stay on the land? It’s a possibility. Andy always said that he was very lucky to have a son cast very much in his own image and with the same stock skills, but David shouldn’t bank on his children being the same as him. He’ll be awfully disappointed if they aren’t, Wilf.’

  ‘I wouldn’t worry too much, Anne. I’m sure David will have some land-minded children. He tells me he would like four or five,’ Gertie said.

  ‘Catriona doesn’t want four or five, Gertie. Two would be plenty for her. She might go to three for David. Having a boy first up put David on cloud nine but I have told him that girls are not to be discounted as they’re doing just about everything today. Sure, they might not want to dig post-holes but who digs post-holes any more? There’s digging machines for holes now.’

  ‘And women like your sister Kate make good role models,’ added Wilf.

  ‘Yes, Kate came to the land in her thirties and David says she’s as good as any man. She can ride and draft cattle with almost anyone and she’s absoluely super with keeping track of drenching programs. David says girls marry and you lose them and only sons can be relied on to keep the properties going. Well, there have been a few sons in this district that have been anything but reliable and they had decent parents. David has such dreams of a MacLeod dynasty and I don’t want him to be disappointed. He’s my only child and I am very proud of him – and proud too that good people like you, Wilf, and Tim Sparkes recognised what was in him and helped him. David and I talk a lot and he realises that he has been lucky and that you should use good luck to better yourself. David wants the MacLeod name to mean something substantial in grazing circles. It really is quite amazing just how much David has progressed. He leaves me quite breathless at times,’ Anne said.

  ‘By gum, I wish I had been able to have a son like him, Mrs Mac,’ Wilf said. ‘I’ve been a silly old fool for most of my life. Just wasted it messing about with horses. I went to pot when Wesley was killed in the war. Very close we were, Mrs Mac. Never bothered with people much after that. Andy was different. He shore my sheep and never worried much about money straight off. Andy handled my horses, too. He was the best man with a horse in these parts. Andy’s father wasn’t up to much, though I heard he did good things in the war. Andy’s mother was a bottler, like I told them all today. She came to see me after Wesley was killed. Rode round the road and brought me cakes and biscuits. Damned fine woman, by gum. Taught Andy well, too. He knew right from wrong.’

  ‘Oh well, we shall have to just wait and see, Wilf. David has his dreams just as he once dreamed of winning the National Trials for his father. He did that when we all thought it was virtually impossible and he has come on a treat since then. For a boy who hated school what my son has absorbed in the way of agricultural knowledge just floors me.’

  ‘That Starana filly could help you a lot, Mrs Mac. By gum, I wouldn’t have offered to lease her to Angus Campbell. You should be racing her yourselves. I could be mistaken but I reckon that filly could do anything,’ Wilf said.

  ‘We aren’t thoroughbred people, Wilf. Angus has been at David for years to breed Ajana to a blood horse, and even offered to pay the service fee. David’s going to lease the filly to him for a while as a kind of thank-you gesture for letting him have such a good lot of Hereford cows to begin his stud. David wouldn’t go back on his word.’

  ‘I never had much time for the Campbells, Mrs Mac. They never came near me when Wesley was killed. I heard that Angus called me an old fool for letting you people have Poitrel. By gum, I wasn’t going to let Angus Campbell have it. It’s you people who should be getting the good out of Ajana.’

  ‘And we have, Wilf. We have some lovely horses from her. David is giving her next foal to Catriona and she can race her if she is so inclined. I believe she wants to.’

  ‘Angus is David’s father-in-law, Wilf,’ Gertie said sharply. ‘Catriona is a lovely person and David wouldn’t want to do anything that would make her unhappy. Obviously Angus has accepted David now and David appears to be doing his best to have a good relationship with the old silvertail.’

  ‘By gum, it goes against the grain knowing that old swank is going to profit from one of my horses,’ Wilf said fiercely. ‘The old bugger has been after a top racehorse all his life and unless I’ve lost my touch, Ajana is going to give it to him.’

  ‘Only for a couple of years, Wilf,’ Anne pointed out.

  ‘Ah well, I can see the difficulty for David,’ Wilf said more mildly. ‘What else could he give him but a decent horse?’

  ‘Well, he did handle the border-collie bitch Angus bought in Scotland and after he handed her over, Angus won a Novice Trial with her. Angus was tickled pink about that, Wilf,’ Anne said with a smile.

  ‘That filly out there will do a lot more than win a sheepdog trial,’ Wilf said.

  ‘You can’t be sure of that, Wilf. You weren’t always right about horses,’ Gertie said.

  ‘By gum, I was right more often than I was wrong, Gert. I was right about Ajana and this filly moves just like her.’

  ‘Well, what will be, will be,’ Gertie said.

  Wilf and Gertie stayed at High Peaks for two more days before leaving to go back to the coast.

  ‘I must say that Wilf looks remarkably well for a man who had a bad heart when he left Poitrel. The operation has given him a new lease of life,’ Anne remarked, as they watched Wilf’s car disappear around the bend.

  ‘It says something for a fish diet, Anne,’ Catriona said.

  ‘It certainly does. A fish diet and a martinet in the shape of Gertie who watches Wilf’s diet like a hawk!’ Anne added.

  ‘It was great to have them here but now there’s work to be done,’ David said.

  ‘What do we do first, darling?’ Catriona asked.

  David looked at her with a puzzled look on his face. He had thought that when Dougal arrived Catriona would spend most of her time with him. She had fed him for a while but now Lottie looked after him more than Catriona. As soon as she had weaned Dougal it was business as usual for Catriona. Whether it was a trip to look at stud cattle or sheep or a muster in the hills, Catriona was with her husband. David did not do as much hill country mustering as he used to because Greg Robertson did a lot of that kind of work now. However, there were still some excursions, such as when they were crutching. Greg had learnt to shear and crutch and David paid him the extra money to crutch. On these occasions David would be involved in the mustering and he would take sheep back to the hills. Catriona liked nothing better than to boil the billy for lunch somewhere up in
the hills. She would lie with her head on David’s shoulder with a dreamy, contented look on her face as she listened to him talk.

  Believing that mothers transferred most of their love and affection to their children, David was puzzled when Catriona indicated her preference for being with him rather than with their son. Nor did her behaviour alter after the births of their other children. It was not that he did not like having Catriona with him – far from it. But having her was a bonus he did not expect. The fact was that while David was an extremely knowledgeable stockman and judge of animals, he did not know very much about women. Catriona loved her husband far more deeply than he ever realised, and David never fully grasped the lengths to which his wife went to keep him interested in her. Catriona was determined that no woman was ever going to lure David away from her.

  Chapter Five

  On the occasions when Catriona saw her husband walking up the track towards her, her heart would usually beat a mite faster and her stomach would flutter. David was a handsome man and he was her man.

  While Catriona had many admirable qualities, she had her fears, faults and frailties like everyone else. One of her secret fears, which she had never expressed to anyone, was that she would lose her looks and figure and that perhaps David would look at other women. Her insecurities were totally unwarranted, but they coloured Catriona’s thinking for about thirty years of her married life. Although she knew that she was expected to have children and wanted to please David, she was secretly fearful that pregnancy and nursing would ruin her figure. She had seen several women deteriorate quite remarkably after producing a family; the bigger the family, the worse it seemed to be. This was the reason Catriona didn’t want the number of children David had in mind. After Dougal was born, Catriona installed an exercise bike and running machine, and exercised every day.

  Catriona’s fears were accentuated when she was over seven months pregnant with Dougal. Catriona and Susan Hunter, who had been Susan Cartwright, still maintained a close friendship and visited each other regularly. Catriona was staying at home a lot now, so Susan often came to High Peaks for lunch. On one particular occasion David had told Catriona he would be back for lunch and the two young women were gossiping while they prepared the meal.