PARCEL TWO
Red-and-white-striped cloth booklet with red-and-blue-marbled boards (6½‘ × 7½‘ approx.). First page inscribed “To E.K. from your own M.H.” Comprising 42 pages completed in red ink, 8 pages in faint pencil. Dust soiling along edges. Several 1‘ to 4‘ tears without loss of text.
An account of the family’s arrival at the district of Greta and a visit from their Uncle James with a very full description of his subsequent arrest for arson and his sentencing at the Autumn Assizes. A brief report of Ned and Jem Kelly’s life as agricultural labourers in the service of Ellen Kelly’s sisters. Mrs Kelly’s selection of land at Eleven Mile Creek is narrated with considerable enthusiasm. Also includes unflattering portraits of Anne Kelly and of various suitors of Mrs Kelly.
NOW WERE YOUR GRANDPA’S poor wracked body finally granted everlasting title to the rich soil of Avenel and your grandma left free to reveal her passion for the Duffy Land Act once again. There were now no one to contradict her or call her a fool certainly not us children. We knew the Quinns had gotten 1,000 acres at Glenmore on the King River and that is what we wanted too even Dan who were the most distressed by our father’s death.
In the hot summer evenings following the burial my mother gathered her brood about her. It were not Cuchulainn and Dedriu and Mebd she talked of now but the mighty farm we would all soon select together she said we would find a great mountain river and flats so rich no plough were needed we would plunge our hands into it and breathe the fertile loamy smell and be neighbours with our aunts and uncles once again and break wild horses and sell them and grow corn and wheat and raise fat sleek cattle and all the land beneath our feet would be our own to walk on from dawn to dusk ours and ours alone.
We did not talk about our father knowing our very excitement were an insult against his memory and his soul were within each soul of ours and would be for every moment of our lives and there would never be a knot I tied or a rabbit I skun or a horse I rode that I did not see those small eyes watching to see I done it right.
There was 60 hard crabholed miles between Avenel and my aunts Kate and Jane. The very small children rode in a borrowed cart together with our chooks in baskets & pots & pans & blankets & axes & hoes & 2 bags of seed my mother sitting up on the bench driving with baby Grace at her breast.
We older ones had charge of the cows and the dogs it were our job to catch the pig when he escaped though we never minded on account of we was going to a farm. Doubtless my mother had the same idea but when we finally arrived at the township of Greta we discovered our uncles had been put in gaol and the aunts and all their children was living in a delicensed hotel. Once a palace of the gold rush it was abandoned now like a grand old ship beached on the wide brown plain it seemed the height of luxury to me.
There was 13 bedrooms and wide hallways such as I had only previously observed in Shelton’s hotel and my cousins Tom and Jack and Jack Jr and my sister Kate run up and down and around in merry misrule.
If my mother were disappointed she never showed it she were always singing with her sisters and riding around the country with her father and brothers deciding which land she might finally select. My aunts must of been very poor but in memory it were a time of plenty and there was duck and chook eggs and fatty mutton with potatoes. Aunt Kate were 4 ft. 10 in. and skinny as a greenhide whip she made what my father called BRUITIN and the Quinns called CHAMP it is potatoes mashed up with a great lump of butter. She had a vegetable garden and she improved the soil so well it could grow anything we pulled up onions 12 in. across it would astound you to see what the land could produce in them days.
I had not been in Greta 2 wk. when I found an unbranded horse I broke with considerable assistance from Jimmy Quinn who did not have the T burned in his hand like old Ben Gould but he were already a famous thief and there was people in Greta said he’d sold his soul to the Devil. Be that as it may there were no better judge of an animal I ever met and never a man who could trick him with an unsound horse or a cow whose horn rings had been fixed up for sale with the clever aid of a file or burning iron.
Jimmy were already 1/2 mad from his numerous incarcerations wild and foul mouthed and violent but always very patient and kind to me and he didnt laugh when I said I were leaving school in order to be a selector. He said a 12 yr. old boy could do very well at buying and selling horses on the side and he helped me break several more unbranded horses so by the time my 13th birthday come around I had a small breaking yard and thought myself an expert in the matter. Some horses I traded and give the proceeds to Mother to help buy our land. I were later given several sheep which I increased by breeding until the flock was 18 strong.
When the older men in the district went off shearing at Gnawarra my brother Jem and I done the same at home me working the springback shears with Jem standing ready with the tar pot to dress their injuries. So you can see I had become a very serious boy it were my job to replace the father as it were my fault we didnt have him anymore.
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.
Where Ma where is it?
You’ll see she cried for we’re off to live there now.
Today?
This very adjectival minute.
I had never thought I would be happy again but a 1/2 hr. later having give Jem my saddle 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 mouth and were reminded that my older sister could never see no hope or good in anything it werent her fault it were her nature.
You’re only 13 said she. You don’t know nothing about life.
Annie herself knew nothing except to fear every ant and spider but I didnt say nothing cruel to her. We had our own land and even when the sun went down and it turned out our mother had forgot to purchase matches and we must therefore retire to our dusty cribs with no more to fill our stomachs than a mixture of uncooked flour and creek water I still remained what is called an OPTIMIST and when our mother lay on her crib romancing about all the fine cattle we soon should own I seen no cause to doubt her.
Thus did time pass very happily through the winter and spring of 1868 I received a new blue shirt and corduroy trousers in a parcel my mother were given by Father Wall in Benalla these clothes belonged previously to a man knocked from a horse when nightriding. He were 18 yr. old when he died but his trousers fitted v. well.
My mother dug up my father’s bluchers these mighty boots was studded closely with nails and though the leather were cracked and hard I fast softened them with lard & mutton fat & Venetian turpentine a recipe given me by Mr Holmes a contractor. They was still a mite too large but when stuffed with fresh grass was not at all uncomfortable and as for their weight I never minded any load I carried in that 1st spring season at Eleven Mile Creek.
After dropping 3 trees in a day I could still find time to break a horse and while these 1st products was a little hard mouthed my younger brothers and sisters soon was riding to the school in Greta. Also I presented to Mother a handsome mare a thoroughbred with a touch of Arab. Once she rode it to mass in Benalla where the police tried to pretend it were stolen but having no case they was afterwards 1/2 hearted in pursuing it.
The spring rains begun early in September they was good and steady by the end of October the weather got gradually warmer and the cows proved productive in their new pasture. The police troubled us no more than they did other poor settlers in the district.
Annie’s chest were growing very womanly but she remained a baby so far as I could see with hardly a week going by when she didnt suffer some alarm that the police was about to raid us and carry our mother off to Melbourne Gaol.
I heard a horse said she one moonlight December night you could smell the perfumes of summer the dust and eucalyptus in the air. Theres some b––––r skulking around the hut she said.
Maggie said it were the new gelding causing trouble she were positive.
Its the adjectival police cried Annie I know it is.
I learned early that these alarms was best settled before my mother and Annie began going at one another. I were the man and it were therefore me who rose out of his crib to put them heavy bluchers on but even as I done so Annie were hissing like a goose about the brandy not being hid away. My mother told her shut her gob. Knocking the pegs out of the door I stepped out into the night.
There in the moonlight stood a man he were holding a specially tailored carbine in his right hand he wore a belt outside a bearskin coat which also held 2 big bright revolvers. I asked him what he wanted.
The man did not answer directly he were broad shouldered spade bearded and heavy jawed his black bearskin coat reaching down to his knees. This is a lonely place said he at last.
From inside the hut I heard a scraping sound as my mother armed herself with the hearth shovel. The man stooped to pluck some thistles and fed them to his horse I could clearly see he were a creature of his own design his white moleskins shone in the moonlight like robes in a stained glass window.
I told him if he had a shilling I would bring him out a good sized glass of grog.
And who might you be sonny Jim?
Ned Kelly.
You’re a little young to be running a shebeen Ned Kelly.
I help my mother Sir.
Do you now?
Yes Sir I do.
The visitor smiled at me and tied the reins of his horse to the veranda post. Tell your mother that Harry Power is here to see her.
The mention of this famous name set off a violent scuffling within the hut I heard Annie cry Mother and my mother say Shutup.
One minute later I followed the great Harry Power inside the dark little hut. My mother by then were out of bed sitting at the table in her bright red dress. Please come in said she as if there was 100 candles burning.
My mother were reluctant to produce a light but the visitor fossicked around in his pockets and once some balls and percussion caps was removed he discovered his box of lucifers and then our tallow candle were ignited and the flickering shadows filled with children’s eyes. We all witnessed the bushranger lay his carbine on the table it were a terrifying weapon its bore were almost one inch the stock 1/2 cut away the barrel severely shortened. I waited to hear my mother tell him he must take the murderous thing outside but she never spoke a word against it and when he said he would appreciate that jar of brandy he were promised by the boy she slipped behind the curtain to personally fetch him what he wished.
Harry Power swept the balls and caps into his big cupped hand putting the caps in his left pocket the balls in the right then he leaned back in the chair looking frankly up at all the staring eyes. Do you know who I am?
I were behind his shoulder so he couldnt look at me but he frightened Gracie and Maggie they hid theirselves. Annie and Dan was staring boldly through the gaps in the curtain the little boy’s big black eyes was popping to see so legendary a creature his older sister’s lips was twisted up with scorn.
I’m Harry Power the bushranger.
When Annie did not soften the famous head begun to turn towards me but suddenly I were shy and shed my bluchers and crawled up to my musty crib. I found Annie in the gloom her arms folded tightly across her little bosoms it were very clear that Harry Power were not the type of cove she wanted for our mother. But the ma were not unhappy I could hear her dancing step as she come back from the skillion. 1st I heard one glass set down then the clink of a 2nd. A little bit of what you fancy Sir.
Harry Power asked my mother did she remember him it were hard to hear for Dan and Jem was whispering.
Oh yes Mr Power I remember you very well.
You know my present circumstances?
You escaped from Pentridge on Wednesday or so I heard from Tom.
He’s an adjectival bushranger Jem whispered to Dan now shut your gob and go to sleep but Dan crawled back across me into Annie’s bed where he were not welcome neither. Get off me you little b––––r go to bed.
In a moment Dan were barrelling back to Jem he were most excited Jem Jem he’s got them concertina leggings on his boots. Shutup said Jem.
Shutup you little b– – – – r cried my mother but it done no good Dan were a wombat charging back to Annie’s bed where I followed him myself then our mother begun asking about Uncle James then even Annie wished to listen she relented of her vicious kicking. The whole family was still much occupied with the fate of Uncle James.
Aye he were there said Harry Power the sword of Damascus is hanging over him. I seen a lot of condemned men in my time Mrs Kelly and they is all different. Do you recall Ryan and Evans? They made a chemical concoction to murder Evans’ wife.
He aint condemned whispered Dan tell him thats wrong tell him our uncle aint condemned no more.
We is appealing you idiot said Annie then my mother shouted I’ll get the adjectival strap to you I’ll lay it across your legs Anne Kelly I swear I will.
Harry Power paused to gaze up into the dark. I were on good terms with Ryan he said at last. After his sentence he couldnt eat at all poor blighter but your brother in law is more like Evans who always took great solace from the nosebag.
James were always an adjectival glutton.
Mrs Kelly now you know that aint polite.
He’s already ate 20 quid of mine to pay his solicitors and he still aint in the clear. I don’t know why we don’t let the b– – – – rs hang him.
Well what is called gluttony in one man is a healthy appetite in someone else.
My mother leaned back on her bench and crossed her arms.
She don’t like him whispered Dan and at 1st he appeared to be correct my mother’s expression had now turned v. hard.
I have a fellow’s normal appetites Mrs Kelly.
Annie give a groan she pulled a pillow across her head and commenced to kick at us again.
But said Harry I have been so denied the satisfaction of one of them that I envy any cove what can eat as freely as James Kelly. I have a stricture in my bowels said he.
Annie come out from under the pillow hissing into my ear that I should put Dan back into his bed but I were watching Harry remove his big thick hobble belt twisting it to illustrate the exact nature of the stricture and I seen how this demonstration made my mother soften it were a very rapid transformation that he extracted from her Is that so my mother said.
Later I would watch Harry do this so frequent that I were no longer amazed at the uses to which he could put his bowels but this 1st time were a wonder to see the glow in my mother’s eye and the angle of her head displaying a very powerful female sympathy. Would a little bacon tempt you Harry?
It would damn me Ellen.
Do you fancy lamb?
I dream of lamb said Harry Power I like it very pink and tender.
He licked his lips delicately and my mother gazed at him distractedly she asked him what of beef?
The very same.
They went through a list of every known animal and I found the conversation both confusing and disturbing and I saw the way my mother took the belt when Harry offered it and how she rolled it neatly and then smoothed it on her lap. I had been very taken with Harry Power but as he looked at her neck and bared his teeth I didnt like him not at all.
Excuse me I called.
O Holy Jesus my mother cried.
Does Mr Power think Uncle James could be got off being hung?
Harry Power glowered up at me. What is it boy?
Its Uncle James Kelly. We never wished him hanged.
Harry took the belt back from my mother wrapping it once more around his girth he seemed very out of temper.
The trouble with your Uncle James is that his solicitor is a famous fool.
That had a sharp effect upon my mother she did not like to hear this low opinion of how she spent her hard earned money.
Harry’s tumbler were not empty but she suddenly picked up both the glasses and removed them to the skillion.
What would you have me do she called.
Zinke.
Whats that?
A solicitor in Beechworth he’s the boyo for us Zinke’s your man Ellen.
When she come out from the skillion her hands were empty her eyes were hard and black as buttons. Zinke!
But just as she come to the precipice of her famous temper at that very moment Harry Power extended his hand seeming to caress her palm then withdrew again leaving her as peaceful as a broody hen.
You give this to Mr Zinke said he and he will get James Kelly put safe and sound where no rope can attach to him.
I could not see the 10 gold sovereigns from the foot of Annie’s crib but certainly heard my mother crying and saw her seize the cove’s broad and damaged hands and cover them with tears and kisses. In a settler’s hut the smallest flutter of a mother’s eyelids are like a tin sheet rattling in the wind.
Angry bunions swollen veins it were a queer thing to see a stranger’s big flat feet sticking out the bottom of my mother’s blanket next morning and to be honest I will confess I would much prefer that she invited no new husbands to her bed but seeing as I couldnt have this wish then I preferred old Harry Power. No woman was ever the worse for knowing me he told me once and even allowing for his feet and bowels he were far superior to the other coves who come trotting along the heat hazed track to see the widow e.g. Turk Morrison from Laceby and that natty Englishman Bill Frost. Old Turk liked to sing love songs to my ma but Bill sat at our table bashing her ear about how to overcome the lack of rain. He were nothing better than a boundary rider but imagined himself a mighty expert on matters agricultural he said the Australians did not farm the land correctly they was low and ignorant etc. etc.
Bill Frost dressed the squatter and wore his hairy brown tweed coat right through the worst of summer which is why Annie were in favour of him but I were insulted by his ignorant opinions it drove me mad to see my mother fall under his spell.
O yes Bill is that so Bill etc. etc.
My hands was blistered bleeding I could chop down 5 trees in one day and you might imagine it would shame a man to see a boy labour thus but Frost never picked up an axe or dropped a single gum that I recall. Instead he give me his ignorant opinions advising me to spread manure across the paddocks or warning it were no benefit to burn crop stubble unless the rain should follow shortly.
And that were the great virtue of Harry Power for he didnt give a tinker’s fart if we seeded St. John’s Wort or tried to cross a bush rat with a wallaby. He would arrive by night and leave early in the morning always bringing a present and if he had robbed a coach he would bring a gold fob watch or a sapphire ring and if he had held up a tavern he would bring a cask of rum or some rancid banknotes and it were left to us to improve the property any way we wished with no argument or contradiction.
But Bill Frost never brought nothing more useful than the local rag it were named THE BENALLA ENSIGN and he and my mother would pore over the cattle prices and cluck their tongues over the ignorance of colonial farmers and I took this very personal.
Alex Gunn were another suitor that were clear the 1st time he appeared on the track from Greta township it were a hot smoky Sunday the sort of day when all your throat is caked with dust the flies crawling in your ears and up your nose holes. I were in the cow yard when a lanky rawboned rider come through the muddy creek up past the hut to where I were trying to persuade our sick jersey cow to taste water from a bucket.
That cow has got a bald spot said the stranger.
I knew that already said I.
You know what will fix it?
We been putting butter on it.
What you need is some Ellman’s Balsam have you any Ellman’s?
I don’t know.
He remained in his saddle staring down at me he had blue eyes and sandy hair and a v. sunburned face he were under 28 yr. much younger than my mother. I thought he were going to criticise something else but finally he brought his horse to keep the sick cow company. Later I saw him walking towards the hut he had bowyangs tied around his bandy legs.
I turned back to my cow when there were a mighty crash a heavy branch fell from the grey box and bounced off the roof of the hut and dropped amongst the chickens who was more or less undamaged. That grey box were often losing branches we was accustomed to it but the visitor were very loudly shocked at such a dangerous tree so close to human habitation. If this were for my benefit it were wasted there was other things to do around the place but soon he located the widow at the cowbails and gathered her children round him as if in training to be their father.
As I come upon them I heard he were instructing them about the grey box a species of the family eucalyptus so he said it were famous for killing people with its branches. He claimed they called it widow maker in tribute to the men it struck down in their prime.
We aint worried I said.
The stranger glanced at me before turning back to my mother. Might I trouble you for a loan of your axe he asked.
She don’t have no axe said I.
He had a little broad hooked nose like a parrot he looked at me along it best as he were able.
Ned said my mother you can bring Mr Gunn your axe. She put one hand round young Dan’s shoulder and stroked Annie’s head with her other and I could see my sister were as pleased with this candidate as she had been displeased with Harry Power. But I wouldnt permit him to be my da so I told him where he would find an axe if he cared to look himself.
O I’ll fetch it Annie said she sauntered over to the hut everybody following and gathering to witness the astonishing sight of Alex Gunn sharpening an axe. When that show were done he split some shingles my mother watching like she never seen such a feat before.
I left to attend the pigs though it were not my job and once I finished I seen the suitor had cut some notches up the grey box using the shingles perhaps 30 in. apart to make a series of steps up the main trunk.
Now he were set to perform the wonder of dropping the tree but then Annie were sent out to bring him inside and by the time I had cleaned myself down at the creek I found him invited to feast on roasted kangaroo. That night he slept on the table that is very close by my mother’s bed. He was up twice in the night and each time I were there to fetch him the lantern.
Next day Alex Gunn departed and Harry Power returned it were like an adjectival railway station he give my mother a sapphire she were very grateful at 1st but they spent a good deal of the afternoon drinking then quarrelled in the middle of the night so he went away.
The next day I dropped 3 very big river gums without no assistance and also shot 4 cockatoos which I plucked and gutted. Annie made cockatoo pie for our supper I admit it were very tasty.
The next time Harry come back he presented my mother with a freshly slaughtered ewe he had shot it in the head and up the backside though he did not explain how this occurred. He stayed the night and left early.
By design or accident Alex Gunn returned almost immediately afterwards he smelled of pomade and he brung a new hemp rope he received more gratitude for that 2/– rope than Harry got for his sapphires. With the others I watched as he carried the rope up the tree I hoped he fell and broke his adjectival neck. 30 ft. or so above our chooks he secured the largest overhanging branch which he cut and lowered to the roof. My mother made such a fuss about how she admired him she had Annie cook him lamb’s fry from Harry’s ewe. When the fry were cooked it must be eaten so dark came with no more than one branch removed from the grey box.
Gunn slept on the table each time he rose I were awake and by his side I was an adjectival terrier.
My mother and I spent the following week sawing up the river gums I had previously felled then we done the best we could to roll and lever the bigger logs to one side. The leaves and lighter branches we pulled into piles so as to burn them once they was all dry it were a mighty endeavour but none of this made a topic of conversation within our family. All they wished to discuss was Alex Gunn.
A week later he brung hoops and dolls also silk scarves for Mother and Annie. To me he give a Bowie knife I thanked him but didnt pay very much attention because we had a paying visitor a boozy old bullocky who were playing me at draughts. I suppose Alex Gunn must of promised to complete his tree on the morrow for I definitely heard Annie tease him saying he would end up as the man in the moon who were sent there by God as punishment for chopping wood on a Sunday.
He said the story made no sense to him at all.
Annie said that he need only step outside she would happily show him the man in the moon with his axe and dog and the bundle of sticks on his back.
Crowning my draughts piece I come back dealing death to the bullocky’s pieces I didnt notice them return until I heard Alex talking to my ma.
Mrs Kelly said he I wonder would you like a stroll as well.
Certainly said my mother. She put down her darning and walked out into the night with Alex Gunn.
I asked Annie What game does he think he’s up to?
For answer I got only a strange smile while the bullocky jumped 4 of my pieces thereby winning himself a crown. Which is where the game were halted for my mother now come in through the door she were arm in arm with Alex Gunn both of them was beaming.
Annie put down the darning. Her cheeks was pink her eyes bright as she looked at me but even when my mother made a clear announcement I were too discombobulated to take it in. It were some moments before I understood my skinny sister was to marry Alex Gunn.
I had thought myself full growed but now I seen the truth it were a mighty shock I were trying so hard to be a man I had kept myself a child. Looking at my sister I saw how her cheeks glowed her bosoms pushed out against her blouse I blushed to think the things they would now be allowed to do together.