Robbery under Arms / A Story of Life and Adventure in the Bush and in the Australian Goldfields

it and nothing else. As for turning him, a wild bull half-way down a range was a likelier try-on. So nobody ever bothered him after he'd once opened his mouth

ristened me and Jim-made one job of it. But mother took Aileen herself in the spring cart all the way to the to

made much difference in our case, for Patsey Daly and his three brothers, that lived on the creek higher up, were as much on the cross as men could be, and many a time I've seen them ride to chapel and attend mass, and look as if they'd never seen a 'clearskin' in their lives. Patsey was

hrough timber or down a range; could back a colt just caught and have him as quiet as an old cow in a week. We could use the axe and the cross-cut saw, for father dropped that sort o

bout touching him-were the smartest lads on the creek, father said-he didn't often praise us, either. We had often ridden over to h

own or so for helping some one away with a big mob of cattle or a lot for the pound. Father didn't go himself, and I used to notice that whenever we came up and said we were Ben Marston's boys both master and super l

t is of those that were 'good drinking men'. He had half-a-dozen children, and, though he was not up to much, he wasn't that bad that he didn't want his children to have the chance of being better than himself. I've seen a good many crooked people in my day, but very few that, though they'd given themselves up as a bad job, didn't hope a bit that their youngsters mightn't take after them. Curious, isn't it? But it is true, I can tell you. So

raight and looked him in the face, till we hardly could think he was the same man that was so bent and shambling and broken-down-looking most times. He used to live in a little hut in the township all by himself. It was just big enough to hold him and us at

ek, and then school was left off till he was right. We didn't think much of that. Everybody, almost, that we knew did the same-all the men-nearly all, that is-and some of the women-not mother, though; she wouldn't have touched a d

re all pretty frightened of him. He'd say to me and Jim and the other boys, 'It's the best chance of making men of yourselves you ever had, if you only knew it. You'll be rich farmers or settlers, perhaps magistrates, one of these days-that is, if you're not hanged. It's you, I mean,' he'd say, pointing to me and Jim and the Dalys; 'I believe some of you WILL be hanged unless you change a good deal. It's cold blood and bad blood that runs in your veins, and y

en think of what he said, now it's too late, we ought to have made better use of it. After school broke up father said Jim and I knew quite as much as was likely to be any good to us, and we must work for our living like other people. We'd always done a pretty fair share of that, and our

of good beef, and a calf now and then. About this time I began to wonder how it was

beasts meant, and being well aware that our brand was often put on a calf that no cow of ours ever suckled. Don't I remember well the first calf I ever helped to put our let

ning, and father and the old dog with a little mob of our crawling cattle and half-a-dozen head of

op of it. But there was a 'wing' ran out a good way through the scrub-there's no better guide to a yard like that-and there was a sort of track cattle

ut-it was hottish weather; the old dog had been 'heeling' him up too, for he was bleeding up to the hocks, and the end of his

. 'You, Jim, make a fire, and look sharp about it. I want to brand old Polly's calf and another or two.' Father came down to the hut while the brands were getting ready

ard,' I said, 'with a star and a white spot on the f

r pushed back off her face, as if she was looking at a ghost. 'Is it doing that again you are, after all you promised me, and you so nearly caught-after the last one? Didn't I go on

father made the hide into a rope, and before he did that had cut out the brand and dropped it into a hot fire. The police saw a hide with our brand on, all right-killed about a fortnight. They didn't know it had been taken off a cancered bullock, and that father took the tro

if he was sorry for it; then he straightened himself up

ere that does as bad. They're just like the squires at home; think a poor man hasn't a

ot between me and it, and stretched out h

our own soul and bringing disgrace upon your family, but ye must b

villain of a shanty-keeper that lived on a back creek. He'd been there as he came by and had a glass or two. He had a regula

the stool, and lay there. Aileen, sitting down in the corner, turned white, and began to cry, while father catches

how, even if a chap's father's a bad one, he don't seem like other men to him. So, as Jim had lighted the fire, we branded the little red heifer calf first-a fine fat six-months-old nugget she was-and then t

er of the yard; father brought his gun and shot the yellow steer. The calves were put

and smoked in the starlight. Hours after I woke up and heard mother crying. Before daylight we were up again, and the steer was cut up and salted and in the harness-cask soon after sunrise. His head and

t. Father said nothing, but sat very dark-looking, and ate his food as if nothing was the matter. After breakfast he took his mare, the old dog followed; there was no need to whistle for him-it's my