by Peter Carey
I were sitting on the old hotel veranda when Dan come running white faced across the paddock he were 6 yr. old and would not tell me what it was had frightened him but he grabbed me by the sleeve and dragged me back from whence he come.
What is it?
I looked in the direction we was heading the little red strips of cloth my mother had torn for St. Brigit were fluttering from the wattles across the street.
Is it a snake?
In the distance was the Warby Ranges but where we walked the country were v. flat and the grass straw white and ankle high I kept my head down looking for the snake.
There he is.
I couldnt see nothing.
Up over there.
In the middle distance I made out a figure emerging from the shadow of a single gum tree and at 1st I thought it human but then observed that broad and careful walk and noted the way the square head were set so high and proud the stiffness in the arms which he held out from his belt. I crossed myself.
Its him.
I took Dan’s hand walking slowly forwards all the time I were wondering why my father would return and what message did he have. Then we come closer and I begun to see some dreadful damage had been done to him he had been melted in the fires of Hell his shoulders sloped his legs was bowed his nose were drooping at its end. But when I were the length of a cricket pitch away I could see the deadly bloating were all gone the misery smelted from him his eyes a lively blue. My da was now a humorist.
You are Ned said he his tone were most familiar.
My hair were prickling on my neck.
And you are Dan?
Dan gripped my hand he would not answer.
Well boys I am your Uncle James and I am hot and thirsty and my horse is in the pound in Beechworth.
My father’s eyes was private he had took his dreadful secrets to the grave but this man had no secrets and when I introduced him to the kitchen he couldnt hide his brotherly affection for my mother kissing the women and hugging the children all except Dan who were still agitated and hung back in the doorway. Tiny Kate Lloyd give him a jar of water and Mother made a cup of tea and when that did not slake his thirst he thought a tot of rum might do the trick. He proved a very lively fellow to have about the premises he were curious about everything and forever sniffing at horses’ necks children’s hair or crumbling yellow box leaves beneath his melted old red nose.
My father had been a stubborn ironbark corner post you could strain a fence with 8 taut lines and never see it budge but it didnt take a day to realise Uncle James were dug too shallow or placed in sandy soil. Everything about him were on the skew his arms and shoulders and eyebrows was all crooked. Just the same he made a v. amiable impression on his nieces and nephews and none were more taken with him than Dan who hung on his every word. He had a mighty hoard of stories and Dan brung me every one in turn Uncle Jim could sniff out gold and Uncle Jim knew where there were a reef and Uncle Jim knew where there were a herd of unbranded thoroughbreds hidden in a fastness in the bush.
From the day our da died Dan had worn that hurt and angry look he carries to the time of writing but in Uncle James’ shadow he were once again the grand little chap that helped me deliver the butter in Avenel.
Uncle James ate like a horse and the women was happy to feed him. The 1st morning he declared himself too shagged out to work but the 2nd day he went out into the bush with a sledgehammer and a bag of wedges and split fenceposts until dark. That night the sisters was very pleased they filled his glass and their own as eagerly. Then one thing led to another and by the time Sunday come he were chasing my mother around the house in broad daylight and the cows was not milked and I could hear them setting up their fuss. I attended to them while Maggie did the pigs and chickens though she complained there were a great deal too much adjectival laughter coming from the house. Afterwards I washed my hands I heard my mother run laughing to her room. It were by this time almost dusk.
My mother locked her door behind her but Uncle James were not offended and he fetched a chair from the kitchen so he might sit outside her door and sing to her.
Here comes Jack Straw
Such a man you never saw
Through a rock
Through a reel
Through an old spinning wheel
Through a bag of pepper
Through a miller’s hopper
Through a sheep’s shank bone
Such a man was never known
I did not immediately understand the song but my aunts was calling out their comments from the kitchen and soon enough it dawned on me that Uncle James were no different from Sgt O’Neil or any of them men who come knocking at my mother’s door.
Here comes I Jack Straw
With a stick in me hand ready to draw
I had 14 childer born in one night
And not one in the same townland
Then I hated him. I were 13 yr. old my head didnt reach the lowest point of my uncle’s sloping shoulder. Not able to beat him man to man I told him if he come with me I would pour him a big jar of poteen but he were deaf as a dog in the middle of a war and would not be diverted from his lechery.
You put your dirty stick away my mother called.
Uncle James’ beard parted in a grin. My stick is spic and span.
I did not want to hear no more I pulled my uncle towards the kitchen. Its Grandpa Quinn’s poteen I said.
He must of had a quart already for he swung a freckled arm and knocked me against the wall then he spoke directly to my mother’s door.
Begob I’ll put that stick inside your little stove.
I would not permit him to speak thus to my mother so I ran and climbed right up him clamping both my hands onto his beard and then twisting his head like I seen my father bring down calves at branding time. With all my weight on his great hairy head I struggled to settle him.
You mutt he cried striking me across the head so hard I landed on the floor I were winded the sparks flying like blowflies inside my brain.
Then my mother flung wide her door. You leave him alone you effing mongrel.
Whoa Ellen whoa now. He tried to take her by her forearms but she easily broke his grip. Said she I aint a horse.
I rushed him from behind and punched him in the kidney but he swatted me away and pushed my mother back into the bedroom and there he tried to throw her on her bed.
No you aint a horse. You is a bouley maiden.
I knew what this meant as did my mother. The bouley maiden is the cow which will not take the bull. She leapt up at him like a windmill and she were scratching and slapping his face and chest so I took the lower 1/2 from knees to kidneys and when he would not retreat I punched him in the bawbles. He were not our equal he fell he rose he tripped and tangled on himself and backed in defeat towards the kitchen.
Later I saw my uncle sitting on the front veranda it were that time of evening when my aunts would try a little poteen it were not quite dark and the currawongs was still crying in the mournful gloom. When the light were gone everyone come inside to eat the stew but Uncle James would not sup with us and in the end we was all so miserable and sorry to see him sad that Mother sent Danny out to ask him in for a drop of pudding.
We waited a good time but Dan didnt come back. Out on the veranda I found my little brother holding my uncle’s horny hand both of them was glued together in their malevolence. Neither of them would speak a word to me.
In my dream I were in Hell with endless heat and choking even waking I could not escape the terrors. The room were filled with smoke my brother Dan had disappeared so I opened the door to the hall and saw nothing but smothering fumes. Then Dan come running lost and terrified and coughing and bawling for his mother. I told him stop bawling or he would die of it. I shook Jem awake.
The Kelly girls was accommodated in the next room so bringing Dan along I picked up little Kate and hollered to the others they must flee. Annie needed no 2nd bidding she went flying up the hallway like a white chook in her
nightie. Maggie wore nothing but a pair of bloomers she tried to rescue Dan but he wouldnt leave my side though his skinny chest were shook with coughing. We once more entered the infernal hallway as my cousins come running past reporting the back of the house were all on fire. We caught up with Annie at my mother’s door it were locked we would need an axe to break it down. Then thank God my mother come out. She tried to give Grace to me so she could return for her tin box. I don’t know what were in that box no more than scissors and reels of cotton but I do know she would of died for it. I ordered her to take the children and I would rescue her treasure from her room. With some diffifculty I found the box but by then the smoke were too hot and thick in the hallway so I retreated to the room where I discovered the window sash were jammed. Thinking I would die I budged the sash enough to squeeze out into the night air. It were a beautiful night the moon high the summer paddocks white as snow.
Looking for my mother I discovered instead my Uncle James gazing blearily at the burning laundry wall he were staggering drunk and careless of the fflames licking all around him. I tried to lead him away but his eyes were shining and he pushed me violently against the chest. Stumbling I saw him pitch his drink into the fifre but even witnessing the rush of fflame I were slow to understand his glass were full of parafffin. My uncle were burning down the house and did not care who knew it. Now he rushed off into the dark and come back with pine palings to pitch into the blazing laundry.
Having no time to worry what damage he might do me I ran at him head down and as he were now v. drunk I tipped him over as easy as a sleeping cow. He cursed me and limped off again into the dark then returned with more fuel so I picked up a handy length of lead pipe and approached him swinging it above my head. The old arsonist could do naught but retreat before me.
The windows was cracking suspended in a rage of heat. I picked up the tin box to give chase but lost him as the entire west wall dissolved in fflame. I opened the door to the chook house but it were too late the rooster and his wives was lying dead upon the earth our dairy cows come ffleeing past me their big eyes was dancing with reflfected fifre.
Finally I found Mother out on the road and all the children safe beside her. I give her the tin box just as Constable Sheehan rode up with his pyjamas visible beneath his uniform.
So what is happening?
It were a very stupid question anyone could see the roof were about to fall. The policeman jerked his head at the stranger who was standing on the road with my frightened brother Dan captive in his freckled arms.
Who’s that?
This is James Kelly says my mother. He has burnt our efffing home down or words to that effect.
The following day our family were dispersed like ash upon the wind my mother taking the littlies 20 mi. away to the town of Wangaratta where she hoped for some type of job. Me and Jem was left behind to work as labourers for our aunts.
Before imprisonment our uncles had selected land out at Fifteen Mile Creek and now there were no choice for their wives but move out there immediately and set to clearing and fencing and performing all the back-breaking tasks which are the poor selector’s lot. Jack and Jimmy Quinn come to assist their sisters get back on their feet and it were them that built the hut we was to sleep in. True they was kind enough at nighttime when the grog was talking but they was very hard men and brooked no laziness around the property. My brother Jem were only 9 yr. old and brung back homework every night from Greta School but were still required to split the firewood and carry pollard and mash for the pigs and many other chores too numerous to mention. We could do no more than curse and swear beneath our breath we had not come to the North East to work as slaves but to possess our own land we could walk on from breakfast until we saw the last kookaburra marking its boundary across the evening sky. We left Avenel expecting we would soon have sleek black cattle and big rumped long necked horses I had imagined them horses most particular in the picture they would make thundering across our plain.
Our aunts was not unkind neither and kept saying our mother would soon make some money but then admitted she were taking in laundry in Wangaratta so we could no longer sustain our hopes.
O how I did hate James Kelly for stealing our destiny from us and I would lie on the hessian bunk with my brother’s bare feet in my face and him and me would comfort ourselves by inventing gruesome punishments for our uncle scalding him and flogging him and dragging him behind a speeding horse. My daughter you will grow to count the days till it is Christmas morning and then you will know exactly how Jem and me reckoned the time to the Autumn Assizes when James Kelly would be assigned his fate.
The Assizes was held in Beechworth. There were much higher country to the south and east but no one could see that from Beechworth for there the law did sit in pomp and majesty and there were no higher place than its own elevated opinion. Of course the town fed off all the sweat and labour of the miners and the poor selectors on the plains below but in those grand stone buildings they could bankrupt or hang you as they pleased. They had a courthouse & prison & hospital plus 4 banks & 2 breweries & 15 hotels.
It were here I reunited with my mother as she descended from the Wangaratta Coach she wore a bright blue silk dress and a bustle and a mighty hat that towered above her head. I were most surprised to see how prosperous she looked.
You grown out of them britches she said.
I didnt understand how she could profit so well from laundry but knew better than to question her directly. In any case we rushed to court and I entered that cool limey building like it were a church my hat removed my head were bowed. I had not seen a Judge until that day and when we was told to rise I done so. When he come to the bench I never knew he would be my enemy for life I seen his wig and his bright red robes and he were a Cardinal to my eyes his skin all white and waxy as if he were a precious foreign object kept contained in cotton wool.
Justice Redmond Barry looked down on the crowded court with hooded eyes we all went quiet even the Lloyds and Quinns could feel his power to harm them.
The traps then brought up Uncle James from the cells he were all skin bone and misery as pitiful a creature as a plucked cockatoo and when he caught my eye he flinched away. It were not so easy to keep hating him when he were called into the dock.
My mother then give her information speaking her mind even when the Judge told her not to. After she were finished the Judge listened to Cons Sheehan read aloud from his notebook. Then the Judge addressed Uncle James and asked did he wish to say anything in his defence.
I will marry Mrs Kelly.
But do you have anything to say in your defence?
Yes I will marry her.
And that is all?
Yes your honour.
Then I will pronounce sentence. Justice Redmond Barry took a square black cloth and placed it over his head.
Mother were now moaning I thought she were upset by this proposal but then I heard the Judge say that Uncle James were to be taken away and hung until dead and I watched the old boy’s mouth open and saw his tongue flick around the corners. His frightened eyes looking out towards us we watched in horror while they took him down.
When we come out of court the women was weeping but Jem and me was silent sick with shame to have our wish come true.
After the death sentence my mother were red eyed and the worse for drink she caught a night coach back to the rented rooms in Wangaratta and what them rooms was like I cannot say. A mother can have no secrets in a settler’s hut she cannot so much as break wind and all her children must hear what she has done but now she were far away from Fifteen Mile Creek and no longer could I guess her life. I were told she took laundry and perhaps she did but I am sure she only did what she must do. She had a mother and father and brothers and sisters but in the end she were a poor widow and she had 7 children and all of them was alarmed and unsettled by their lives. Dan peed his bed and Annie’s bones ached at her knees and when she run they made a click. Nor were I too shy to tell my mother
the misery that come of being her sisters’ slave.
I didnt know I had grown 2 in. and thought my Aunt Kate were boiling my clothes too hard for they now was cutting into my crutch and tight across my chest but all I knew were that an unpaid Agricultural Labourer went hungry and weary from dawn to dusk.
I were sitting in the outhouse at Fifteen Mile Creek one August morning that is 4 mo. since Uncle James were sentenced I heard a rider approaching at a gallop but I didnt think much of it for all the Quinns and Lloyds was flashy riders they was lairs and larrikins and they would put on a show or jump a fence as soon as blow their nose. I sat in the stinky dark and did my business listening to the horse trot round the hut and a woman’s voice hooing hahing and then I heard my name being called impatiently. I were peeved that I could not get a moment to myself I come stumbling from the dunny tugging at my braces as my buttons would not do up no more.
It were my mother wheeling around me the morning sun behind her I saw her dress were some fancy silk or satin it were a new and brilliant red. Land ho she cried.
She wore no hat but her black hair were braided and her face flushed and her black eyes bright and she sat astride her handsome chestnut mare with her skirts rucked up to show her smooth bare knees. Land ho she cried we got our land.
I looked to the new dairy and saw skinny Aunt Kate and buxom Jane they was standing at the door and Aunt Kate were frowning and Aunt Jane were smiling to see this vision of their sister splendid as a queen. Just then Jem come mooching out from behind the woodheap where he had been hiding but seeing the visitor he run up to the mare he got a grip on the horse’s kneebone between his big toe and his 2nd toe and with that stirrup he sprung upon our mother’s lap. He had missed her company very bad.
I asked what were the rent and she kissed Jem on his head and neck then wheeled her horse around. No rent she cried it is selected I give the money order to the Land Office last night at 5 o’clock it is our own own land my darling boys.