Read Online The River Charm by Belinda Murrell - Free Book Online Page B

‘I’ll be glad when it’s finished.’
    Mamma frowned and rubbed her forehead. ‘Well, better hard work than starving,’ she replied. ‘Emily, would you fetch the bread from the pantry, if you please?’
    The girls carried flat cane baskets filled with loaves of bread, slabs of butter and knives. Louisa was entrusted with the canvas bag containing the tin mugs for tea and a small sack of sugar.
    They could hear the deafening sounds of the washing long before they could see it. Hundreds of sheep bleated plaintively to their lambs. Men yelled and called instructions. Water sloshed and splashed. Dogs barked.
    The men had set up temporary pens that were filled with unwashed sheep, their heavy fleeces matted with muck. The creek at this point had steep, rocky sides. A rough dam of boulders and soil had been constructed to capture the winter rains, forming a wide waterhole warmed by the spring sunshine.
    Mamma directed the girls to set the baskets down in the shade with Bridget to mind them, then she led them to the half-full pen to inspect the sheep.
    James was helping Charley tend to a campfire with a huge kettle suspended over the coals. When he saw them, James ran over. His clothes were soaked to the skin, his hair was sticking out from under his hat, and his face was flushed. He had been down helping the men since dawn. It was the first year he was old enough to join in.
    â€˜Mamma, come and see the sheep,’ called James. ‘We have washed hundreds and hundreds of them, and John was knocked over by a big ram who escaped before he was washed, and we had to chase after him. The dogs were so clever and brought the ram back, meek as a lamb. And Mr Ash said I did a fine job.’
    â€˜Hello, James,’ called Mamma, ruffling his damp hair. ‘It sounds like you are having a wonderful time. Have you minded everything Mr Ash has told you?’
    â€˜It has been so much fun,’ James said. ‘I’ve been helping herd the sheep down into the water and running errands and washing some of the smaller ewes.’
    Mr Ash, the superintendent, came over to greet Mamma, raising his cabbage tree hat. ‘Master James has been a good young stock hand this morning, ma’am,’ he assured her with a grin. ‘We’ll make a good farmer out of him yet.’
    â€˜I hope he will be, just like his father,’ confessed Mamma with a fond glance at her son.
    â€˜May I wash our pet lambs too, please, Mamma?’ asked Louisa, looking up with excitement. ‘They look so pretty, all fresh and white.’
    â€˜It’s a little rough down in the sheep wash today, Miss Louisa,’ explained Mr Ash. ‘But perhaps you can wash the lambs in the yards tomorrow. I’ll get one of the men to carry up some buckets of water for you.’
    â€˜I can use our lavender soap and they’ll smell beautiful,’ Louisa decided, bouncing from one foot to another.
    â€˜Charlotte and I will help you, poppet,’ said Emily with a smile. ‘Then we can walk them around the orchard on leads made of ribbon while their coats dry.’
    Mr Ash grinned at the image. ‘I’m glad we don’t have to give the whole flock that kind of special treatment,’ he joked. ‘It would take us months to get the job done.’
    â€˜How is the washing proceeding?’ asked Mamma, her brow creased.
    The two leant on the rails of the stock pen, checking the milling ewes and rams. Charlotte and James climbed up on the rail, their legs hanging down inside the pen. A shepherd was using a long timber crook and his dog to separate out individual beasts and send them down the race towards the water.
    â€˜When this pen is empty, we will have washed four hundred sheep,’ said Mr Ash. ‘We should finish another three hundred this afternoon, so it should take us three days to do them all.’
    Mamma nodded, gazing out over the crowded pens. ‘How