“Come, come, now. Daddy’s little mate isn’t going to turn Turk like that, is she? I’ll put some fat out of the dinner-bag on it, and tie it up in my hanky. Don’t cry any more now. Hush1, you must not cry! You’ll make old Dart2 buck3 if you kick up a row like that.”
That is my first recollection of life. I was barely three. I can remember the majestic4 gum-trees surrounding us, the sun glinting on their straight white trunks, and falling on the gurgling fern-banked stream, which disappeared beneath a steep scrubby hill on our left. It was an hour past noon on a long clear summer day. We were on a distant part of the run, where my father had come to deposit salt. He had left home early in the dewy morning, carrying me in front of him on a little brown pillow which my mother had made for the purpose. We had put the lumps of rock-salt in the troughs on the other side of the creek5. The stringybark roof of the salt-shed which protected the troughs from rain peeped out picturesquely6 from the musk7 and peppercorn shrubs8 by which it was densely9 surrounded, and was visible from where we lunched. I refilled the quart-pot in which we had boiled our tea with water from the creek, father doused10 our fire out with it, and then tied the quart to the D of his saddle with a piece of green hide. The green-hide bags in which the salt had been carried were hanging on the hooks of the pack-saddle which encumbered11 the bay pack-horse. Father’s saddle and the brown pillow were on Dart, the big grey horse on which he generally carried me, and we were on the point of making tracks for home.
Preparatory to starting, father was muzzling12 the dogs which had just finished what lunch we had left. This process, to which the dogs strongly objected, was rendered necessary by a cogent13 reason. Father had brought his strychnine flask14 with him that day, and in hopes of causing the death of a few dingoes, had put strong doses of its contents in several dead beasts which we had come across.
Whilst the dogs were being muzzled15, I busied myself in plucking ferns and flowers. This disturbed a big black snake which was curled at the butt16 of a tree fern.
“Bitey! bitey!” I yelled, and father came to my rescue, despatching the reptile17 with his stock-whip. He had been smoking, and dropped his pipe on the ferns. I picked it up, and the glowing embers which fell from it burnt my dirty little fat fists. Hence the noise with which my story commences.
In all probability it was the burning of my fingers which so indelibly impressed the incident on my infantile mind. My father was accustomed to take me with him, but that is the only jaunt18 at that date which I remember, and that is all I remember of it. We were twelve miles from home, but how we reached there I do not know.
My father was a swell19 in those days — held Bruggabrong, Bin20 Bin East, and Bin Bin West, which three stations totalled close on 200,000 acres. Father was admitted into swelldom merely by right of his position. His pedigree included nothing beyond a grandfather. My mother, however, was a full-fledged aristocrat21. She was one of the Bossiers of Caddagat, who numbered among their ancestry22 one of the depraved old pirates who pillaged23 England with William the Conqueror24.
“Dick” Melvyn was as renowned25 for hospitality as joviality26, and our comfortable, wide-veranda’ed, irregularly built, slab27 house in its sheltered nook amid the Timlinbilly Ranges was ever full to overflowing28. Doctors, lawyers, squatters, commercial travellers, bankers, journalists, tourists, and men of all kinds and classes crowded our well-spread board; but seldom a female face, except mother’s, was to be seen there, Bruggabrong being a very out-of-the-way place.
I was both the terror and the amusement of the station. Old boundary-riders and drovers inquire after me with interest to this day.
I knew everyone’s business, and was ever in danger of publishing it at an inopportune moment.
In flowery language, selected from slang used by the station hands, and long words picked up from our visitors, I propounded29 unanswerable questions which brought blushes to the cheeks of even tough old wine-bibbers.
Nothing would induce me to show more respect to an appraiser30 of the runs than to a boundary-rider, or to a clergyman than a drover. I am the same to this day. My organ of veneration31 must be flatter than a pancake, because to venerate32 a person simply for his position I never did or will. To me the Prince of Wales will be no more than a shearer33, unless when I meet him he displays some personality apart from his princeship — otherwise he can go hang.
Authentic34 record of the date when first I had a horse to myself has not been kept, but it must have been early, as at eight I was fit to ride anything on the place. Side-saddle, man-saddle, no-saddle, or astride were all the same to me. I rode among the musterers as gamely as any of the big sunburnt bushmen.
My mother remonstrated35, opined I would be a great unwomanly tomboy. My father poohed the idea.
“Let her alone, Lucy,” he said, “let her alone. The rubbishing conventionalities which are the curse of her sex will bother her soon enough. Let her alone!”
So, smiling and saying, “She should have been a boy,” my mother let me alone, and I rode, and in comparison to my size made as much noise with my stock-whip as any one. Accidents had no power over me, I came unscathed out of droves of them.
Fear I knew not. Did a drunken tramp happen to kick up a row, I was always the first to confront him, and, from my majestic and roly-poly height of two feet six inches, demand what he wanted.
A digging started near us and was worked by a score of two dark-browed sons of Italy. They made mother nervous, and she averred37 they were not to be trusted, but I liked and trusted them. They carried me on their broad shoulders, stuffed me with lollies and made a general pet of me. Without the quiver of a nerve I swung down their deepest shafts38 in the big bucket on the end of a rope attached to a rough windlass, which brought up the miners and the mullock.
My brothers and sisters contracted mumps39, measles40, scarlatina, and whooping-cough. I rolled in the bed with them yet came off scot-free. I romped41 with dogs, climbed trees after birds’ nests, drove the bullocks in the dray, under the instructions of Ben, our bullocky, and always accompanied my father when he went swimming in the clear, mountain, shrub-lined stream which ran deep and lone36 among the weird42 gullies, thickly carpeted with maidenhair and numberless other species of ferns.
My mother shook her head over me and trembled for my future, but father seemed to consider me nothing unusual. He was my hero, confidant, encyclopedia43, mate, and even my religion till I was ten. Since then I have been religionless.
Richard Melvyn, you were a fine fellow in those days! A kind and indulgent parent, a chivalrous44 husband, a capital host, a man full of ambition and gentlemanliness.
Amid these scenes, and the refinements45 and pleasures of Caddagat, which lies a hundred miles or so farther Riverinawards, I spent the first years of my childhood.
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1
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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dart
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| v.猛冲，投掷；n.飞镖，猛冲 | |
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buck
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| n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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creek
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| n.小溪，小河，小湾 | |
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picturesquely
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musk
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| n.麝香, 能发出麝香的各种各样的植物，香猫 | |
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shrubs
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| 灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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densely
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| ad.密集地；浓厚地 | |
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doused
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| v.浇水在…上( douse的过去式和过去分词 )；熄灯[火] | |
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encumbered
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，拖累( encumber的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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12
muzzling
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| 给（狗等）戴口套( muzzle的现在分词 )； 使缄默，钳制…言论 | |
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cogent
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| adj.强有力的，有说服力的 | |
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flask
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| n.瓶，火药筒，砂箱 | |
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muzzled
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| 给（狗等）戴口套( muzzle的过去式和过去分词 )； 使缄默，钳制…言论 | |
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butt
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| n.笑柄；烟蒂；枪托；臀部；v.用头撞或顶 | |
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reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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jaunt
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| v.短程旅游；n.游览 | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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aristocrat
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| n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物 | |
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ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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pillaged
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| v.抢劫，掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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renowned
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| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
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joviality
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| n.快活 | |
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slab
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| n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上 | |
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overflowing
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| n. 溢出物,溢流 adj. 充沛的，充满的 动词overflow的现在分词形式 | |
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29
propounded
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| v.提出（问题、计划等）供考虑[讨论]，提议( propound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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appraiser
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| n.评价者，鉴定者，估价官 | |
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veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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venerate
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| v.尊敬，崇敬，崇拜 | |
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shearer
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| n.剪羊毛的人；剪切机 | |
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authentic
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| a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的 | |
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remonstrated
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| v.抗议( remonstrate的过去式和过去分词 )；告诫 | |
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lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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averred
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| v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 )；证实；证明…属实；作为事实提出 | |
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38
shafts
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| n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等） | |
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mumps
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| n.腮腺炎 | |
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measles
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| n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子 | |
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41
romped
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| v.嬉笑玩闹( romp的过去式和过去分词 )；（尤指在赛跑或竞选等中）轻易获胜 | |
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42
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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43
encyclopedia
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| n.百科全书 | |
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44
chivalrous
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| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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45
refinements
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| n.（生活）风雅；精炼( refinement的名词复数 )；改良品；细微的改良；优雅或高贵的动作 | |
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