Its residents were principally married folk and children under sixteen. The boys, as they attained3 manhood, drifted outback to shear4, drove, or to take up land. They found it too slow at home, and besides there was not room enough for them there when they passed childhood.
Nothing ever happened there. Time was no object, and the days slid quietly into the river of years, distinguished5 one from another by name alone. An occasional birth or death was a big event, and the biggest event of all was the advent6 of a new resident.
When such a thing occurred it was customary for all the male heads of families to pay a visit of inspection7, to judge if the new-comers were worthy8 of admittance into the bosom9 of the society of the neighbourhood. Should their report prove favourable10, then their wives finished the ceremony of inauguration11 by paying a friendly visit.
After his arrival at Possum Gully father was much away on business, and so on my mother fell the ordeal12 of receiving the callers, male and female.
The men were honest, good-natured, respectable, common bushmen farmers. Too friendly to pay a short call, they came and sat for hours yarning13 about nothing in particular. This bored my gentle mother excessively. She attempted to entertain them with conversation of current literature and subjects of the day, but her efforts fell flat. She might as well have spoken in French.
They conversed17 for hours and hours about dairying, interspersed18 with pointless anecdotes19 of the man who had lived there before us. I found them very tame.
After graphic20 descriptions of life on big stations outback, and the dashing snake yarns21 told by our kitchen-folk at Bruggabrong, and the anecdotes of African hunting, travel, and society life which had often formed our guests’ subject of conversation, this endless fiddle-faddle of the price of farm produce and the state of crops was very fatuous22.
Those men, like everyone else, only talked shop. I say nothing in condemnation23 of it, but merely point out that it did not then interest us, as we were not living in that shop just then.
Mrs Melvyn must have found favour in the eyes of the specimens24 of the lords of creation resident at Possum Gully, as all the matrons of the community hastened to call on her, and vied with each other in a display of friendliness25 and good-nature. They brought presents of poultry26, jam, butter, and suchlike. They came at two o’clock and stayed till dark. They inventoried27 the furniture, gave mother cookery recipes, described minutely the unsurpassable talents of each of their children, and descanted volubly upon the best way of setting turkey hens. On taking their departure they cordially invited us all to return their visits, and begged mother to allow her children to spend a day with theirs.
We had been resident in our new quarters nearly a month when my parents received an intimation from the teacher of the public school, two miles distant, to the effect that the law demanded that they should send their children to school. It upset my mother greatly. What was she to do?
“Do! Bundle the nippers off to school as quickly as possible, of course,” said my father.
My mother objected. She proposed a governess now and a good boarding-school later on. She had heard such dreadful stories of public schools! It was terrible to be compelled to send her darlings to one; they would be ruined in a week!
“Not they,” said father. “Run them off for a week or two, or a month at the outside. They can’t come to any harm in that time. After that we will get a governess. You are in no state of health to worry about one just now, and it is utterly28 impossible that I can see about the matter at present. I have several specs. on foot that I must attend to. Send the youngsters to school down here for the present.”
We went to school, and in our dainty befrilled pinafores and light shoes were regarded as great swells29 by the other scholars. They for the most part were the children of very poor farmers, whose farm earnings30 were augmented31 by road-work, wood-carting, or any such labour which came within their grasp. All the boys went barefooted, also a moiety32 of the girls. The school was situated33 on a wild scrubby hill, and the teacher boarded with a resident a mile from it. He was a man addicted34 to drink, and the parents of his scholars lived in daily expectation of seeing his dismissal from the service.
It is nearly ten years since the twins (who came next to me) and I were enrolled35 as pupils of the Tiger Swamp public school. My education was completed there; so was that of the twins, who are eleven months younger than I. Also my other brothers and sisters are quickly getting finishedwards; but that is the only school any of us have seen or known. There was even a time when father spoke15 of filling in the free forms for our attendance there. But mother — a woman’s pride bears more wear than a man’s — would never allow us to come to that.
All our neighbours were very friendly; but one in particular, a James Blackshaw, proved himself most desirous of being comradely with us. He was a sort of self-constituted sheik of the community. It was usual for him to take all new-comers under his wing, and with officious good-nature endeavour to make them feel at home. He called on us daily, tied his horse to the paling fence beneath the shade of a sallie-tree in the backyard, and when mother was unable to see him he was content to yarn14 for an hour or two with Jane Haizelip, our servant-girl.
Jane disliked Possum Gully as much as I did. Her feeling being much more defined, it was amusing to hear the flat-out opinions she expressed to Mr Blackshaw, whom, by the way, she termed “a mooching hen of a chap”.
“I suppose, Jane, you like being here near Goulburn, better than that out-of-the-way place you came from,” he said one morning as he comfortably settled himself on an old sofa in the kitchen.
“No jolly fear. Out-of-the-way place! There was more life at Bruggabrong in a day than you crawlers ‘ud see here all yer lives,” she retorted with vigour36, energetically pommelling a batch37 of bread which she was mixing.
“Why, at Brugga it was as good as a show every week. On Saturday evening all the coves38 used to come in for their mail. They’d stay till Sunday evenin’. Splitters, boundary-riders, dogtrappers — every manjack of ’em. Some of us wuz always good fer a toon on the concertina, and the rest would dance. We had fun to no end. A girl could have a fly round and a lark39 or two there I tell you; but here,” and she emitted a snort of contempt, “there ain’t one bloomin’ feller to do a mash40 with. I’m full of the place. Only I promised to stick to the missus a while, I’d scoot tomorrer. It’s the dead-and-alivest hole I ever seen.”
“You’ll git used to it by and by,” said Blackshaw.
“Used to it! A person ‘ud hev to be brought up onder a hen to git used to the dullness of this hole.”
“You wasn’t brought up under a hen, or it must have been a big Bramer Pooter, if you were,” replied he, noting the liberal proportions of her figure as she hauled a couple of heavy pots off the fire. He did not offer to help her. Etiquette41 of that sort was beyond his ken16.
“You oughter go out more and then you wouldn’t find it so dull,” he said, after she had placed the pots on the floor.
“Go out! Where ‘ud I go to, pray?”
“drop in an’ see my missus again when you git time. You’re always welcome.”
“Thanks, but I had plenty of goin’ to see your missus last time.”
“How’s that?”
“Why, I wasn’t there harf an hour wen she had to strip off her clean duds an’ go an’ milk. I don’t think much of any of the men around here. They let the women work too hard. I never see such a tired wore-out set of women. It puts me in mind ev the time wen the black fellers made the gins do all the work. Why, on Bruggabrong the women never had to do no outside work, only on a great pinch wen all the men were away at a fire or a muster42. Down here they do everything. They do all the milkin’, and pig-feedin’, and poddy-rarin’. It makes me feel fit to retch. I don’t know whether it’s because the men is crawlers or whether it’s dairyin’. I don’t think much of dairyin’. It’s slavin’, an’ delvin’, an’ scrapin’ yer eyeballs out from mornin’ to night, and nothink to show for your pains; and now you’ll oblige me, Mr Blackshaw, if youll lollop somewhere else for a minute or two. I want to sweep under that sofer.”
This had the effect of making him depart. He said good morning and went off, not sure whether he was most amused or insulted.
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1
stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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stagnation
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| n. 停滞 | |
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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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4
shear
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| n.修剪，剪下的东西，羊的一岁；vt.剪掉，割，剥夺；vi.修剪，切割，剥夺，穿越 | |
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5
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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7
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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9
bosom
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| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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11
inauguration
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| n.开幕、就职典礼 | |
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ordeal
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| n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验 | |
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13
yarning
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| vi.讲故事（yarn的现在分词形式） | |
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14
yarn
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| n.纱，纱线，纺线；奇闻漫谈，旅行轶事 | |
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15
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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16
ken
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| n.视野，知识领域 | |
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conversed
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的过去式 ) | |
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18
interspersed
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| adj.[医]散开的；点缀的v.intersperse的过去式和过去分词 | |
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19
anecdotes
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| n.掌故，趣闻，轶事( anecdote的名词复数 ) | |
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20
graphic
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| adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的 | |
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21
yarns
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| n.纱( yarn的名词复数 )；纱线；奇闻漫谈；旅行轶事 | |
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22
fatuous
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| adj.愚昧的；昏庸的 | |
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condemnation
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| n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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24
specimens
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| n.样品( specimen的名词复数 )；范例；（化验的）抽样；某种类型的人 | |
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25
friendliness
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| n.友谊，亲切，亲密 | |
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26
poultry
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| n.家禽，禽肉 | |
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27
inventoried
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| vt.编制…的目录（inventory的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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28
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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swells
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| 增强( swell的第三人称单数 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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earnings
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| n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得 | |
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31
Augmented
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| adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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32
moiety
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| n.一半；部分 | |
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33
situated
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| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
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34
addicted
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| adj.沉溺于....的，对...上瘾的 | |
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35
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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37
batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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38
coves
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| n.小海湾( cove的名词复数 )；家伙 | |
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39
lark
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| n.云雀，百灵鸟；n.嬉戏，玩笑；vi.嬉戏 | |
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40
mash
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| n.麦芽浆，糊状物，土豆泥；v.把…捣成糊状，挑逗，调情 | |
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41
etiquette
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| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
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42
muster
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| v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册 | |
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