Read Online True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Peter Carey
Tags: Fiction
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I were galloping bareback towards our destiny. I were still only 13 yr. and my mother were a young woman not much over 30 and she thundered past us through the cutting tearing down the white clay track with a low fog wrapped around her knees. Then we come along by the narrow little creek the blades of sunlight falling through the foliage and there were a hut surrounded by a stand of dead white ringbarked trees and I seen the slab wall and the rough battens and the steam rising off its damp bark roof and I could not know that this were the very site where you would one day be conceived.
My 6 yr. old brother Dan raced out its open door he had no clothes upon his lower self and sturdy laughing Maggie were behind him and they chased towards us through the sun drenched mist and then I knew this were my home my heart were bursting I jumped off my horse and scooped the laughing naked boy into my arms.
My mother’s selection were 3 mi. from Greta it bordered the Eleven Mile Creek from which the district takes its name. Section 57A was one of 5 blocks of roughly equal size it were lightly timbered near the track but soon the bush were very thick all flat and clayey then elevating slightly to the south running up between the 2 arms of Futter’s Range in a wide basin.
88 acres were less than I had imagined though my mother chose it not for its acreage but for the great commercial advantage of having a hut already constructed and adjacent to a public thoroughfare. The morning Jem and I arrived she had already set up a barrel of brandy and purchased 2 doz. clear glass bottles and a gross of corks she were in the way of running a little shebeen. Of course it were illegal to sell grog without a govt. licence but she must do what she must do and this were the only way to fund the improvement of a property all still unfenced and uncleared.
I caught Dan and helped Maggie get his britches on while my mother give Jem the reins and went in the hut. Next thing I knew the red dress were gone and replaced by a shirt and pr. of men’s trousers tied up with rope. She then said we must all get to work and help her build a cockatoo fence to keep the dairy cows contained of a night. Once that were done we could bring the little herd across from Fifteen Mile Creek and begin to have income from our butter which were bringing 2⁄– per lb. at that time.
I had not been on the land 2 hr. before I had felled a mighty gum tree the parrots squawking with alarm and a baby possum dead upon the ground. My sisters Kate and Grace buried it beside the creek but neither my mother nor the older children had no time for sentiment we all was slaving even Annie despite her never liking to get her hands dirty.
At the end of the day the fence were still not completed but my family had witnessed my new strength and they knew I could be the man. I were v. tired as anyone would be. I didnt do none of the children’s chores and sat in the last of the sunshine using the wet stone on my axe. Annie should of been busy with her mother but instead called to me she found a yabby in the creek. I told her to fetch a bit of bacon rind and a length of string we took it down to the creek and I instructed her how to tie the bait I were not surprised she didnt watch.
Tell her not to sell the grog.
I saw there werent no yabby nowhere that she had practised a deception in order to speak to me alone.
They’ll arrest her for the grog she said and then they’ll send us to the industrial school. This were typical of her she were always the same.
Jeez Annie take it easy.
But she put her hand upon my sleeve and twisted it. We need a cove said she.
What for?
To marry her says she to save us.
Annie Annie do not fret.
Fret my foot. Are you stupid?
Fair go Annie. Didnt you see how many trees I dropped? Don’t you know I can catch a yabby if there is one. I’m as good a shot as any cove you know. We will make a mighty farm here Annie.
She snorted I looked at her thin and bitter
My 6 yr. old brother Dan raced out its open door he had no clothes upon his lower self and sturdy laughing Maggie were behind him and they chased towards us through the sun drenched mist and then I knew this were my home my heart were bursting I jumped off my horse and scooped the laughing naked boy into my arms.
My mother’s selection were 3 mi. from Greta it bordered the Eleven Mile Creek from which the district takes its name. Section 57A was one of 5 blocks of roughly equal size it were lightly timbered near the track but soon the bush were very thick all flat and clayey then elevating slightly to the south running up between the 2 arms of Futter’s Range in a wide basin.
88 acres were less than I had imagined though my mother chose it not for its acreage but for the great commercial advantage of having a hut already constructed and adjacent to a public thoroughfare. The morning Jem and I arrived she had already set up a barrel of brandy and purchased 2 doz. clear glass bottles and a gross of corks she were in the way of running a little shebeen. Of course it were illegal to sell grog without a govt. licence but she must do what she must do and this were the only way to fund the improvement of a property all still unfenced and uncleared.
I caught Dan and helped Maggie get his britches on while my mother give Jem the reins and went in the hut. Next thing I knew the red dress were gone and replaced by a shirt and pr. of men’s trousers tied up with rope. She then said we must all get to work and help her build a cockatoo fence to keep the dairy cows contained of a night. Once that were done we could bring the little herd across from Fifteen Mile Creek and begin to have income from our butter which were bringing 2⁄– per lb. at that time.
I had not been on the land 2 hr. before I had felled a mighty gum tree the parrots squawking with alarm and a baby possum dead upon the ground. My sisters Kate and Grace buried it beside the creek but neither my mother nor the older children had no time for sentiment we all was slaving even Annie despite her never liking to get her hands dirty.
At the end of the day the fence were still not completed but my family had witnessed my new strength and they knew I could be the man. I were v. tired as anyone would be. I didnt do none of the children’s chores and sat in the last of the sunshine using the wet stone on my axe. Annie should of been busy with her mother but instead called to me she found a yabby in the creek. I told her to fetch a bit of bacon rind and a length of string we took it down to the creek and I instructed her how to tie the bait I were not surprised she didnt watch.
Tell her not to sell the grog.
I saw there werent no yabby nowhere that she had practised a deception in order to speak to me alone.
They’ll arrest her for the grog she said and then they’ll send us to the industrial school. This were typical of her she were always the same.
Jeez Annie take it easy.
But she put her hand upon my sleeve and twisted it. We need a cove said she.
What for?
To marry her says she to save us.
Annie Annie do not fret.
Fret my foot. Are you stupid?
Fair go Annie. Didnt you see how many trees I dropped? Don’t you know I can catch a yabby if there is one. I’m as good a shot as any cove you know. We will make a mighty farm here Annie.
She snorted I looked at her thin and bitter
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