A Fortunate Life

by A B Facey

  When Uncle came home he insisted that we all stay and have lunch with them. Bill and I unharnessed the horse and put him in Uncle’s stable and gave him a feed. I had my lunch with the girls and Bill in the kitchen. Uncle Archie, Aunt Alice, Grandma, Mum and Frank had theirs in another room so they could discuss the adoption without us kids hearing what was going on. I never told the girls or Bill anything.

  After lunch I was called into the room where Uncle and the others were. Uncle told me that they had talked the adoption over from all its angles and he, Grandma and Aunt were all in agreement. He said they had agreed to all meet in Narrogin where they would talk the matter over with the authorities. So, on the set date, we all met in Narrogin, and Mum and Frank, Grandma and Uncle Archie went to see someone at the Police Station.

  While I waited I walked around the town. Narrogin was one of the largest towns of the fringe of the wheat-belt. It had two hotels, two boarding-houses, two shops, a doctor, a chemist and a small hospital on a hill away from the railway station. It was on the Great Southern railway line and a train went through once a day each way from Perth to Albany.

  When I returned to the Police Station I waited until Frank came out and called me inside. Uncle, Grandma and Mum were all sitting around a large table and an official-looking man was sitting at the far end. There was a policeman there also, with three stripes on his sleeve.

  The official-looking man said to me, ‘Is your name Albert Barnett Facey?’ and I said, ‘Yes, sir.’ He then said, ‘Mr and Mrs Phillips want to adopt you. Do you agree to this adoption?’ I said, ‘Yes, sir, very much.’ He then said, ‘So you know what this would mean to you?’ I said that I believed that I would be their son and would be bound to them for the rest of my life. He then said that if I did anything wrong against their wishes they could punish me or give me a whipping. This stunned me for a few seconds. I knew what a whipping was like. My hesitation made the official look up and then Grandma said, ‘Excuse me, sir. I think you should understand that when he was ten years old, he was flogged with a horse-whip by a coward of a man.’ She told him about what had happened to me at Cave Rock and said that I still carried the scars. With that I was told by the official to take off my coat and shirt. I did this and Grandma pointed out the still visible scars. The official said, ‘Not that kind of whipping son, that is shocking.’

  The policeman then told the official that an officer had been sent out to find someone willing to testify in court about the flogging, but although there was plenty of evidence, it was impossible to get anyone to come forward because of fear of revenge. He said that the old woman, her sons and their friends were a bad lot, and that some of the sons had done time for horse and cattle stealing. The official then said to me, ‘We’ll cut out the word whipping. Do you still want these people to adopt you?’ I replied, ‘Yes sir.’

  A few minutes later we left the Police Station. Uncle had a large blue paper which was something to do with the adoption because he said, ‘We will have to get an envelope to put this in and post it.’ The next day we went home.

  Frank had arranged for his brother-in-law, Jack Connor, to look after things while we were away. We found everything okay when we arrived home. My hands were better now and we continued with the clearing. We had a lot of heavy rain the day after we finished clearing, so Frank started ploughing and would soon be getting ready for seeding.

  The Government had started a mail delivery once a week. It came from Narrogin along a bush track through the lower part of the wheat-belt to a place called Gillimanning. The mail coach stayed at Gillimanning overnight and returned to Narrogin the next day, a distance, overall, of about sixty-five miles. The coach was a light buggy and had two beautiful horses. The mailman delivered mail to all letter-boxes placed in a suitable position close to the track, and the farmer had to have his full name painted on the box. The mailman would also pick up any letters for posting, but they had to be properly stamped. Our letter-box was about three miles from our home and I had to go and get the mail, if any, on mail days. Frank arranged to get papers by mail also.

  It was early in May that a large letter came with O.H.M.S. on the top. I always got the mail about four o’clock in the afternoon on a Thursday. Frank was busy seeding and Mum always opened the mail after dinner when Frank was home. This large letter had something to do with the adoption, because Mum and Frank were both quiet after reading it. They filled in a large white form, and the next day, sent me over to a spot on the road about four miles away where the mailman passed. It was early in the morning and I had to wait until the mailman came to give him two letters. One was large and the other was ordinary. Having done this I returned home to finish doing my usual chores.

  Mum called me in and told me that there was some hitch about the adoption and that the letters that I had posted were to my mother and to the Government. She said that they wouldn’t know the outcome until they got a reply from my mother, who had refused to sign the adoption paper. Mum said, ‘We wrote her a letter explaining what we were prepared to do for you and asking her to give you a chance, and to ask why she didn’t give her consent.’

  It was in June that a letter from my mother came in reply to the one that they had written. When this letter was opened, Mum looked at Frank and said nothing. We had been so happy up to this point. They never read the letter to me but they said that the adoption was off. My mother wouldn’t give her consent.

  16

  A BITTER END

  From then on the Phillips’ attitude to me changed. I did not know why. I was still doing my work; I worked hard and tried to please them all I could, but they wouldn’t let me join in when they were talking and never took me with them anymore when they went to a dance or out visiting. I asked Frank one day if he would agree to me buying myself a push-bike so I could ride over and see Grandma occasionally and be able to go places. He refused, telling me that my place was there and not running around the country.

  About the middle of March, Frank accused me of taking apples from some Delicious variety apple trees in his garden. He told me to leave the apples alone, but being a boy and having little or no fruit, the temptation was too great.

  Each tree had twenty or thirty apples. I think Frank must have counted them, because one morning I heard him say to Mum that there were two more apples missing. He came to me a little later and told me to get a spade and dig around each apple tree till I was at least twelve feet away from the trunk. He also said, ‘Don’t go taking any of the apples.’

  I thought that this was mean. Anyway, I did as he required and never touched the apples. With doing my usual chores each day, it took me two days to finish digging around the four trees. Then Frank made me get the garden rake and smooth the ground where I had dug, so that anyone who wanted the apples couldn’t get them without leaving tracks. So my apple supply was cut off.

  Or was it? At first I worked out that if I got my two apples (that’s all I ever took at once), then raked over the ground, he wouldn’t be any the wiser. But his cunning ways stopped this – he locked the rake in the tool shed.

  Now I had become as determined as he was that I was to have my two apples each day. I found a way around the problem, and next morning, two more apples were missing. Frank told Mum and they pondered over it, Mum making all kinds of suggestions. She said, ‘Set a trap.’ They did this, but every morning two more apples were gone. They were really baffled.

  I thought then that they might guard the trees. A neighbour suggested that possums may be taking the apples, so Frank set snares. He never caught a possum but still the two apples were missing each morning. This went on until all the apples were gone. I often wondered if they had found out how I got those apples.

  This is how I did it. One day down at the stable, I noticed two six foot lengths of guttering soldered together, and tied up over the part of the roof where the horses went in and out in the winter time. The guttering was tied very loosely and I found it was easily removed and put back. So after Frank and M
um had gone to bed and their light had gone out, I would wait until I could hear Frank snoring – he snored loudly and a lot (Mum was always complaining about it) – and then I would sneak out and get the guttering. I would take it to the apple tree that I had selected during the day and lift one end up to a nice red apple. Then I would move the end up and down until the apple stem gave away, and the apple would simply run down the guttering to me. I suppose it could be called stealing, but nobody was hurt and the apples were very nice. If they had given me an apple now and then I wouldn’t have dreamed of taking them.

  I made up my mind to go out occasionally for a day, usually Sunday. I would get up early and do my chores and cut enough fire wood to do for the day. Sometimes I would go over to a neighbour’s place. Some neighbours who always made me welcome were the Bibbys. They were middle-aged and had no children, but were very fond of them. Their place was four miles away and I had to walk. I had been there several times with the Phillips. The Bibbys wouldn’t hear of me walking back home when I visited them and would drive me back to our gate. They told me to come as often as I liked.

  Mr Bibby was a medium-sized man and very jolly. He was very fond of telling funny stories, and Mrs Bibby was very nice, but she wasn’t enjoying good health. They had a boy working for them who was two years older than me but he didn’t know much about farming. He was from the city and didn’t like the country. He was lazy too. I didn’t like him. He always called the country boys ‘country bumpkins’.

  On one of my visits Mr Bibby asked me how I was getting along with my job, and I told him not too good since my mother had refused to sign the adoption papers. He said that this had hurt the Phillips very much, but he didn’t think they should take it out on me. He went on to say that he didn’t want me to think he was trying to take me away from the Phillips, but should anything happen so that I was looking for another job, they would be glad to give me one on the same terms as the Phillips. I said that I wouldn’t like to be the cause of the boy losing his job. He said, ‘Don’t worry about that. We’re sending him back to his people in the city. He is no good to us.’ Now with the knowledge that I would be welcomed, I liked the idea.

  About two weeks later Frank made me drive four horses pulling a three-furrow stump jump-plough. He told me I was big enough to learn to do all kinds of farm work. I had seen this ploughing done and knew how to do it, but what I didn’t like was that I had to do all the chores around the place as well as get the horses in early in the morning, harness them and take them to do the fallowing. I was working from five in the morning until seven at night while Frank was the gentleman of the place.

  After a week of this I said to Frank, ‘Do I get a raise in my wages while I am doing a man’s work or do you expect me to do all this for ten shillings a week and keep?’ That started something. He told me that if I wasn’t satisfied to get out. I never answered him but went about my work.

  Three days later, a nasty boil formed on the back of my neck. It was very painful and driving the plough didn’t help. There was a seat on the plough and the bumping of the plough going over the uneven ground and stones made the pain worse. After the boil came to a head and burst I was much relieved, but a few days later two more boils came up in the same place. They were twice as large as the first one and more painful.

  One morning I complained and said I couldn’t stand the jolting of the plough. I asked Frank to relieve me of the ploughing until the boils were better. He looked at them a few seconds, then grabbed me around the neck and started squeezing the boils. The pain from this was terrible. I swung my hand towards him and struck him in the stomach, knocking him down. Mum ran out demanding to know what had happened and I told her.

  I didn’t take any chances with Frank. I knew what a vile temper he had, so I went into the shed near the house and locked myself in. I expected him to come looking for me as soon as he had recovered enough. But to my surprise, he sent Mum out to tell me he wanted to talk to me inside. I went inside. I wasn’t very brave about it though and went in behind Mum, so that if it was a trap I had a clear get-a-way. Frank said, ‘Why did you hit me?’ I told him that I didn’t know where I had hit him because I was in so much pain. I had to do something to make him let go, so I struck out in his direction and hit him in the stomach. ‘All right,’ he said, ‘I shouldn’t have done what I did, but I will not employ you any longer.’ With that he paid me what was coming to me. I packed my bags, or roll, slung it over my shoulder and walked off.

  As I was leaving Mrs Phillips called to me, ‘You had better come and have some breakfast before you go.’ I called back, ‘No, thank you,’ and continued on my way. All of my hopes of a permanent home were dashed because of the actions of an unworthy mother. I never found out what actually happened, but I think that she probably asked for money in exchange for me.

  17

  THE BIBBYS

  I set out along the track leading to Bibby’s house. My swag was heavy so I rested several times. The first time I rested was after I got out the back gate of Phillips’ property. I suddenly became very depressed and I couldn’t help it, I cried and cried. I felt alone in the world again. Why was it, I asked myself, that my mother had deserted me when I was two years old and didn’t care if I lived or died, but was still allowed to prevent me from being adopted by someone decent who wanted to send me to school and give me something that most other kids had, a home and comfort? After awhile I pulled myself together and again started off, towards another job I hoped.

  I arrived at Bibby’s place before lunchtime. The dogs came out barking when I neared the gate leading to the house. (They had a six foot fence around the house and orchard, enclosing about two acres of land.) Mrs Bibby came out to see what the dogs were barking at. She stared at me, then all of a sudden she commenced to laugh. She said, ‘I didn’t know you. Your swag is bigger than you are. Surely you never carried it all the way from Phillips’ place.’ ‘I did,’ I said. She continued, ‘Why didn’t you leave it there? We could have fetched it for you in the sulky.’ I said, ‘I wasn’t sure of getting a job here, and I’d want my swag if I had to move on.’

  Mrs Bibby noticed how careful I was when I moved my head and she asked me what was wrong. I told her that I had two boils on the back of my neck. She asked me to show her. I did, and she took me inside and washed the boils in a fluid – Condy’s Crystals, I think. Then she put a bandage around my neck covering the boils. This treatment eased the pain.

  A few minutes later Mr Bibby arrived home for lunch. He greeted me, and Mrs Bibby told him about me leaving the Phillips and how it came about. He laughed and said, ‘I’d give a tenner to have seen you drop him. It must have knocked the wind out of him or else he would have tried to knock you down. I always reckoned he had no guts.’ Mr Bibby then said, ‘Do you want to work for us?’ I said, ‘I would like to if you’ll have me.’ He replied, ‘Of course we will. We are not as well off as the Phillips are but we have plenty of work. We are doing our clearing on the Government grant of one pound an acre and we don’t get paid until it’s cleared. They won’t pay till we have twenty-five acres or more cleared, because they have to send an inspector to measure up. He gives us a cheque on the spot. I’m telling you this because we may not be able to pay your wages until we receive the cheques. We will pay you the same as you were getting at the Phillips’ place. I believe that was ten shillings a week and full keep. Will you be satisfied with that?’ I said that that would be fine. ‘Then you will not have to work as hard,’ he said, ‘that I will promise you. We don’t work long hours, but we work hard while we are working.’

  The Bibbys were very nice people. They had only been there about two and a half years and had come from the Goldfields. They’d taken up one thousand acres on conditional purchase and they both had a homestead block of one hundred and sixty acres. They had one hundred and fifty acres cleared and in crop – one hundred acres of wheat and fifty of oats for hay. They had most of their land fenced, and owned cows, a very nice team of six h
orses, about twenty pigs, some fowls and geese, and also about thirty sheep and twenty lambs. It was lovely land, as good as the Phillips’ but not so rocky. It was more level and easier to cultivate and clear.

  The Bibbys had a four-roomed house. They gave me a room all to myself and a lovely single bed with sheets and blankets and a bedspread. It was the first time that I had sheets to sleep between since we left Victoria. It seemed too good to be true. They wouldn’t let me work until my boils got better. Mr Bibby insisted that I call him Charlie.

  I settled in with these nice people who were struggling, like many. For a start, my work was chopping the small trees and scrub off level with the ground. All trees six inches to a foot thick, Charlie and I chopped down at waist height, then we knocked the bark off the stump and put the pieces around the base. By doing this the stump and bark would dry off, and when the burning season came in February, a lot of the stumps would burn down to ground level. Those that didn’t would get scorched and would easily burn when we came to them when clearing. The very big trees, from one foot upwards, were burnt down. I liked chopping and burning down. It was hard work and I got big water blisters on my hands for the first week or so, but then my hands got used to it and became tough.

  I had my thirteenth birthday the first week I was at the Bibby’s. Nobody knew; I hadn’t told them as birthdays were nothing to me. They came and went. I used to hear a lot about birthday parties from time to time, but who was going to bother about me.

  We got on fine, the Bibbys and me. Charlie said that I was real good with an axe. I was big for my age, and although I never had any schooling, I could learn things, such as farm work, very quickly. I could ride a horse, harness a horse to a cart or wagon and drive a four-horse team.