A Fortunate Life (Puffin story books) Page 3

  Four

  Weeks, then months went by and winter came. It was not until late in September that Alec and Jack came home again, for a week. They never talked about where they had been. The old lady told me that Bob was doing a big clearing contract and that Alec and Jack were going to work with them. After they had gone I heard the old lady and Albert arguing about the boys. Old Albert said they would do it again, and the old lady said they had a bad time in gaol and she didn’t think they wanted any more of that. But Albert said, ‘That’s what you said last time.’ So I knew they had been in trouble before.

  About three weeks before the next Christmas, Bob, Alec, Jack, two of the old lady’s grandsons and four other men came home for hay-cutting. We each had a scythe, and the kids tied the cut hay into sheaves and put them into stocks. There was a thunderstorm just before we started cutting the hay. A flash of lightning struck the ground at the end of the paddock of oats and travelled through the whole forty acres leaving a track some ten yards wide, the shape of a huge snake. The track went black in two days and lots of people came to see the huge freak letter S.

  The grandsons were George, who was eighteen, and Bill, sixteen. Bill and I got on well and one day I asked him if he knew about Alec and Jack being in gaol. He said he did. ‘Serves them right. They have been stealing horses and cattle for years,’ he said. ‘As soon as I’m old enough I’ll get away from here, and you should get away too if you can. They are a lot of drunken robbers.’

  So I made up my mind to get out of that place as soon as I could. Bill and I often talked of getting out. He told me I would have to be very careful because the boys were all good trackers. They had learnt from the blacks whom they had lived with at times.

  One day Bob and Alec went to town for supplies, and when they returned from town they had the cart loaded with cases of grog. Bill remarked that there would be another brawl on Christmas Day. He was right. On Christmas Eve the relations and friends came and there was such a crowd stopping the night I had to sleep in the stables. This time Bill slept there with me and we talked for a long time. Bill suggested that we hide some of the grog—it would help to stop any brawling with less to drink. Bill had seen Alec and Bob putting it in the large hessian cooler used for the milk, out on the back veranda, and he suggested that the top of the stable roof would be the ideal place to hide it.

  So Bill and I agreed that when the lights up at the house went out, and we were sure everyone was asleep, we would carry out our plan.

  So when it was very dark we took three bottles of whisky, three bottles of rum and four bottles of wine from the cooler, unseen by anyone. Bill climbed on to the roof of the stable, I handed the bottles up to him, and Bill put them in holes that he made in the straw, then covered them over.

  Next morning, Christmas Day, everyone was asleep and I went up to light the fire. Bill went with me to get the cows, then we filled up the water-troughs at the soak. We fed and watered the pigs and Bill milked the cows. After we had our breakfast we took the sheep out to graze and arrived back near midday. The women were busy preparing Christmas dinner. The men were all under the weather, some so drunk they couldn’t sit in their chairs properly. We had our dinner and then had a sleep in the stable until it was time to bring the cows in.

  When I got back with the cows it was nearly sundown. Bill came to meet me and said there was a big row on at the house. The grog had run out and Bob was blaming everyone for stealing it, even the old lady. This made Bill and me very scared. Bill had heard Bob say that last Christmas he had found some bottles planted in the stable and he would search it this time from end to end, so Bill suggested that we take the grog we had planted and put it somewhere else.

  We got the bottles off the stable roof and put them into two bags, and put these on top of the pig shed roof. About half an hour later Bill’s brother George came and told us that Bob wanted Bill up at the house. I stayed in the stable. Later I heard Bill yelling and I knew that he was copping a belting. They were trying to make him tell them where the grog was. This made me frightened so I thought I would shift the bottles from the roof of the pig house in case Bill gave in and told. I went to the pig house and knocked the heads off the bottles and emptied them into the trough with the pig feed, because I couldn’t have carried all the full bottles. The empties were easy to manage, so I took a bag full of broken bottles down into the gully close to the soak.

  When I was clear I heard loud voices going towards the pig house. One of the voices was Bob’s and I could also hear Alec. I was safe as it was very dark, and as long as I didn’t make a noise I would be all right. All at once it came to me to let the bag and broken bottles down into the water. There was always about eight feet of water in the soak. Having done this I sneaked back to the pig house and could hear that Bill was copping it again. They were belting him and calling him a liar, then Bob’s voice came above the others and said, ‘Find Berty. Then we will get to the bottom of this.’

  Then a terrible din came from the pig shed—all the pigs were squealing. Oh, what a noise. I sneaked up as close as I dared, wondering what was wrong. Then Bob yelled out, ‘The young sod has poured the grog into the pig trough and they’re all drunk. Wait until I get hold of him. I’ll skin him alive.’

  I quietly got away into the bush and stayed hidden. About two hours later things became quieter, and everyone seemed to be settled down for the night. In the early hours of the morning I ventured into the stables to get my blanket. My idea was to wait until daylight, then clear out and try to get to Uncle’s place, but I was very tired and fell asleep and when I woke the sun was well up, and standing over me was Bob with a stock-whip in his hand. He said, ‘How much grog did you and Bill put into the pig trough last night? Come on, get up, where’s the rest of the grog?’

  I didn’t speak, just stood looking up at him. He gave me a cut around the legs, then he lashed me around the shoulders and body. The whip was one he used to tame the horses with and he knew how to use it. I don’t know how many times he cut me because I must have fainted.

  The next thing I knew I was up at the house on a sofa in the living-room. The old lady and some other women were applying some kind of ointment to my cuts. Some of the cuts were an inch wide, and up to twelve inches long, and went into my flesh half an inch in places. I was so ill, I kept fainting. They seemed to be terribly worried about me and one woman said, ‘This is shocking, I think he will die. What were the other men doing to let Bob flog the boy like this?’ Old Albert said that Alec had stopped Bob and knocked him down. They had fought and Alec and Alf had given Bob a hiding. After that Bob had got on his horse and cleared out. Albert said Alf had gone to get a woman to attend my wounds, a new settler’s wife who had been a nurse before she married.

  Soon Alf came back, the nurse with him. She came straight to me and washed my wounds clean of the ointment and dabbed some sort of white powder on to the whip marks. This eased the pain just a little, but I felt very bad. The old lady gave me a drink of milk. She used an old teapot because I couldn’t sit up; in fact I couldn’t move my arms or legs.

  Then I started to vomit and the nurse looked very worried. She asked Alf how far it was to the nearest doctor. I heard Alf tell her it could take a week or more to get to him and she said, ‘That would be too late. We will have to do the best we can.’ The nurse was an angel. She stayed up with me all night and kept putting the powder on to the cuts and this slowly eased the pain. I dozed off near daylight the next morning.

  It was nearly midday when I awoke and I felt a little better. I tried to talk but was unable to make any sound. My neck was very sore and swollen; the whip had caught me around the throat. The nurse came in to see me and said, ‘Can you hear me? If you can, just close your eyes and open them again.’ I did this and she smiled and said, ‘I think that you will come through this all right, you must be made of leather.’ Then she told me that she would put some hot packs on my neck and try and get the swelling down. If that worked I would be able to talk, and m
aybe keep some food down. So for the next two days the nurse kept hot packs around my neck and arms and legs. This was hard to stand at first, but it did reduce the swelling, though for a while I could only whisper. Then my voice came back and I was able to move my arms and legs. A few days later the nurse left, saying that she would come back again in about a week’s time to see how I was getting along. When the nurse came back I was much better. I could sit up, I could eat, and although I was still very sore, the swelling had gone down to almost normal in places. I could use my hands and turn my neck about without much pain. The nurse was very pleased with my recovery.

  So now we were in 1905. Bob hadn’t returned. Jimmy, a part-blood Aboriginal lad, came to help the old lady while I was unable to walk, and he made friends with me.

  I made up my mind to clear out from Cave Rock as soon as I was well enough. The old lady kept asking me how soon I would be well enough to do my work, and so did Albert, but it was about the middle of January before I could walk properly. One night I was lying awake thinking about how I could get back home again, when a scheme came to me. I had no boots. This meant that I would have a rough time walking at night, so I went down to the stable when no one was around and cut bags into pieces to make coverings for my feet. I made four pairs of bag boots and hid them in the stable.

  I had to wait then until there was no moon so that I would have at least six hours to travel in before daylight. I had to work out a way to make them believe I had taken a different direction to the one I intended to take, so I made up a story to tell Jimmy. He was not to let anyone know, but the nurse’s husband had offered me a job that would give me five shillings a week and keep but I was too frightened to ask the old lady to let me go. I hoped this would throw them off my trail, because the nurse lived in the opposite direction to what I would be taking when I ran away.

  Bob came home near the end of January. He was very nice to me, asking a lot of questions about how I was, saying, ‘I am very sorry for what I did.’ I never answered him, and after a few minutes he left. I could hear him asking the old lady if she thought that my people would do anything about it if they found out what had happened. The old lady suggested that Bob go away for at least six months. She said, ‘You could get years in gaol for what you did.’ So Bob left early next morning.

  Near the end of February I judged the moon was about right for my break, so I got my things ready. I rolled up the bag boots I had made in my red rug, together with some bread, and milk in a jar. Now I was ready to ask the old lady if I could go and work for the nurse’s husband. So that day I told Jimmy about the job, and the next morning I asked the old lady. She thought for a while, then she said, ‘No, not on any account. Don’t let me hear you mention this again, and don’t think you can run away because Bob will soon get you back again and you know what he will do to you, so just you forget it.’

  The night came and everyone went to bed early. My bed had been moved to the living-room when I was ill. Jimmy came in and talked with me and I told him what the old lady had said and that I’d have to forget about the job because I didn’t want any more trouble. Then I started to yawn and made out I was sleepy, so Jimmy went to bed. He slept on a small veranda on the north side of the house and I was all alone. I had gone to bed that night with my clothes on, or I should say rags, because that’s just what they were. I got out of bed and slowly edged my way to the door. It was always left open during the summer nights. I got my swag and set off towards Uncle’s place and freedom, without anyone knowing. I knew that Jimmy would be the first to notice that I had gone in the morning. They would probably send Jimmy over to the nurse’s place before they searched anywhere else, so I felt safe.

  When I got clear of the Cave Rock homestead I sat down and put on my first pair of bag boots and tied them to my feet with string. This enabled me to leave no footprints that could be followed. I walked all that night. I wasn’t used to the weird noises made by the wild animals. The dingoes were close to me and no doubt watching me all the time. One of them would howl and then a few minutes later its mates would answer.

  I continued on my way until well after the sun had come up, then I turned into some thick scrub. I had used two pairs of my boots and my feet were starting to get very sore. I would set off again when it was dark. I had some bread and the milk, then lay down and fell asleep.

  I must have slept for hours, because when I woke the sun was set low in the west. I felt rested but very frightened. Everything was very quiet and I wasn’t game to move until darkness came.

  The sun went down and I got my rug and rolled it up into a swag, putting the remains of the bread inside. On went the third pair of bag boots to start the second night’s walk. Oh! was I thirsty. I picked some leaves from a tree and chewed on them while I was walking along. I hadn’t gone very far when my friends the dingoes started to howl. They frightened the very devil out of me. The bush seemed to come alive at night, the possums calling to one another, and occasionally a kangaroo rat fighting noisily for its life.

  After walking for about three hours, I judged the time to be about ten or a little later. Then, over a small hill, I noticed a faint light. It was a long way ahead and looked to be in the right direction. This lifted my feelings and I started to walk faster; it might be Gillimanning which I knew was not very far from my uncle’s place.

  I must have travelled two or three more miles before I came close to the light. I could see now that it was a fire. Then, as I got closer I could see people, some standing and some sitting around the fire. All at once my feet felt sore. The pair of bag boots I had on had worn through and I had been walking on rough ground. I sat on the ground and put on the last pair of boots.

  When I got within one hundred yards of the fire two big dogs came towards me all at once, barking savagely. A large man came after them, calling, ‘Who’s there?’ I yelled, ‘It’s me, a boy.’ As I approached the fire the man said, ‘Where in the blazes did you come from?’ I said, ‘I’m on my way to my uncle’s place. It’s near Snows Well.’

  We walked back to the fire and the man’s wife spoke to me and asked me had I had anything to eat. I told the lady that I hadn’t had any food since early that morning and that I had walked many miles. She got me some food at once; she was a nice person. One of the children got me a pannikin of water, which I drank and then asked for more.

  The couple had four children; two boys and two girls. After I had eaten the man told me to tell them all about my troubles. ‘You look like you have had a bad time,’ he said. So I told them all that had happened to me since I went from Uncle’s with big Bob, including the flogging. To prove it I pulled my rag shirt off and showed them the whip marks. The man said he wouldn’t have believed that anyone could be so cruel and that if anyone did that to one of his kids he would kill them. He went on to say that they were new settlers from Scotland and had only been here about three months. He knew about Snows Well and, as luck had it, he wanted to have a talk with Uncle about buying some horses and a cow. ‘In the morning I will drive you over to your uncle’s place in my spring-cart,’ he said. ‘It is about nine miles or so. Now we must go to bed.’ He called to his eldest son, Jack, and told him that I was to doss in with him for the night. I no sooner laid my head on the pillow than I was asleep.

  The next thing I knew it was daylight. After breakfast the man and a second son, about my age, got into the cart with me and we set out for Uncle’s place. We arrived at about eleven o’clock in the forenoon. I could see the many changes that had been made at Uncle’s place. They had about one hundred acres cleared and a lot of the land had been fenced. They were now all out working, clearing more land for cropping in the winter.

  One of Uncle’s daughters saw us and ran to tell the others, and they all came to see me. Dear old Grandma threw her arms around me and cried with joy. The Scotsman made himself known to them and told them about the scars all over my body. Uncle made me take off my shirt and stood and went white with rage and said he would go to Narrogin
the next day and see what the police had to say about it.

  Uncle had a long talk with the Scotsman before he and his son set off back home. I thanked him for his kindness and for bringing me home. Grandma, Uncle and Aunt also thanked him and Uncle said he would give the Scotsman all the help and advice he could. When he left, Grandma made me have a bath and washed my feet in salt water, then made me go to bed.

  The next day Uncle went to town to see what could be done about having Bob punished. I was kept in bed the three days he was away. When Uncle Archie returned he was not very hopeful of bringing Bob to justice. The police knew of him and the whole Cave Rock mob, but had said that it would be hard to prove anything against them because everyone living nearby was scared of them. But they would send a man to see what could be done.

  Grandma looked after me like a baby and she shed many tears for letting me go to Cave Rock. Uncle bought me a pair of boots, two shirts, two pairs of shorts, some socks, and also a cap and coat while he was in Narrogin. I was now over my sore feet and able to go and help with the clearing and possum snaring. They were still dependent on the possum skin money to make ends meet, though Uncle had bought a milking cow and the women were making their own butter.

  Five

  I turned eleven years old in August 1905. I stayed with Uncle until October and by then he had one hundred acres of wheat growing and would be ready to harvest in about twelve weeks. It was a lovely crop. Grandma told me about a new scheme brought in to help the settlers become established so that they could grow enough wheat, and stock their properties. The Government would pay twenty shillings for every acre the settler cleared ready for cropping. Also, they paid so much for fencing and other improvements that were made. This money was by way of a loan, to be paid back interest free over twenty-five years. There were also Government loans for stock and machinery. By this time all the land around Uncle Archie’s had been taken up so that now he had neighbours on all sides.