 CHAPTER VI of some everyday-foken dawn by Miles Franklin. This loop of ox recording is in the public domain. Grandma Clay's Love Story "'Oh, you don't want to hear it now,' she said in response to my request, but she gave her pleased laugh, betraying her willingness to tell it. "'Sometimes I get running on about old times and don't know where to stop, and dawn says people only pretend to be interested in me out of politeness. I think I hinted to you that mine was a love match, the only sort of marriage there ought to be. Any other sword in my mind is only fit for pigs.' "'But sometimes love matches would be utterly absurd,' I remarked. "'Well, then, people that are utterly absurd ought to be locked up in an asylum. Anybody that's fit to love wouldn't love a fool, because there must be reason in everything. Some people I know would love a monkey, but they ain't fit to be counted with the people that keeps the world going. Well, I got as far as we kept an accommodation house on the Sydney Road. Fine Road it was, too, level and strong, and in many places flagged by the convicts, and it stands good to this day. It ain't like these godforsaken roads about here.' Grandma showed symptoms of convulsions. "'But some people is only good for to be stuffed in an asylum, and that's where the Noon Moon, a simple council, ought to be, and I say it. No jake there, my own brother, is one of them.' "'Did Jim Clay?' I said, by way of keeping to the subject. I told you how I used to sneak out to buckle the horses on, and when Jack Clay, a great chum of me fathers, used to be driving the upcoach, me father, would need best luck of passengers, which wasn't often there being more life and people moving in the colony then, and when I'd be good, would put me up on the box and take me on to the next stage, and I'd come back with Jack Clay. That was me husband's father. As it used to be in the night, it usedn't to take from me time, and I'd be up again next day as if I'd slept forty hours. I wasn't like the girls these days. If they go to a blessed ball and are up a few hours, they nearly have to stay in bed a week after it. In that way I come to be a great hand with the reins, and me father took a deal of pride in me, because all the young men up that way began to talk about me. Me father had the best team of horses on the road. He used to always drive them himself. He was always a kind man to everyone and everything about him. He drove three blood coaches abreast and two lighter ones, but a flying fairy in the lead. Weren't them the days? That great coach swinging round the curves and sidling in the dark? I fancy I can feel the reins between my fingers now. And there was always a lot of jolly fellows. I knew stint they'd cheer me when the horses would play up a bit. It was considered wonderful for me to manage such a team. I was only a slight slip of a girl, not near so fat as Dawn. She takes more after a grandfather. Me and my sisters had no lack of sweethearts, and we didn't run after them neither. Some people make me that mad the way they run after people and lick their boots. When I'd be driving with me father, Jim Clay used to be with his, but he was some years older than me. He wanted to enter the driving business as soon as opportunity came, and him and me were sort of rivals like. Many of the young swells used to bring me necklaces and brooches. But somehow, when Jim Clay only brought me a pocket handkerchief or a lump of ribbon, I liked it better and kept it away in a little centered box, and I was supposed to be in love with a good many in their days. Some people always knows others' business better than they do their selves. Me too, sisters, got married soon as they were 18, one to a thriving young squatter, and the other to a rich old banker. Seeing how she got on is what makes me again old men marrying young girls. It ain't natural. A man might marry a girl a few years younger than himself, but there must be reason in everything. I was older than me, sisters, and people began to twit me and say I'd be left on the shelf. But before this, when I was 16 and Jim Clay 20, my father broke his leg and was put by. All his trouble was his horses. He fretted and fretted that they'd be spoiled by a careless driver, and he had them trained so they knew nothing but kindness. I was only too willing. When I up and under took to drive the coach right through, old Jack Clay said he'd come with me a turn or two and leave Jim to take his team. But just then he had some terrible new horses that no one could handle but his self. He was a wonderful hand with horses, was Jim's father. So Jim was sent with me. My, wasn't there a cheer when I first brought the mail in all on me own? The old face flushed forth a radiance as she told her tale. Some of the old gents in the town of Gugul come out and shook hands with me, and the ladies kissed me when I got down off of the box. There was a lawyer fellow, considered a great lady killer in them days. He had a long beard shaved in the Dundryry. Donalway says he must have been a howler with a beard of that description. But times change, and these clean-faced women-looking fellows the girls think is very smart now will look just as strange by and by. However, he was rum and strong with me, and my mother considered him favourable, him being a swell and making his way. Soon as ever I started running the coach, he was took with a lot of business down the road, and used to be nearly always a passenger. It appears that sweetheart tactics have not changed if the style in beards has, I remarked with a smile. No, and I'll never change seeing a man as a man and a girl as a girl, no matter what fashions come and go. I never can see why they make such a fuss and get so frightened, because women does a thing or two now they used it to. Nothing short of an earthquake can make them not men and women, and that's the main thing. Well, to go back to my yarn, lots of other passengers got took the same way, and there was a great bidden for the box seat, that was a prerequisite belonging to the driver, and my father used to get a sovereign for it often. I used to dispose of it by a sort of tender, and five pounds was enough for it. And once in the gold rush times, when money was laying around like water, a big miner, just to show off, gave me two tanners for it. They used to be wanting to drive, but I took my father's advice and never let go of the reins. Well, among these fine chaps, Jim Clay wasn't noticed. He was always a terrible quiet fellow. I did all the joran. He'd always say, come now Martha, there's reason in everything, just when I'd be mad, because I couldn't see no reason and nothing. He was sitting in the back of the coach, and it was one wet night, and only a few passengers for a wonder who was glad to take refuge inside. Only the lawyer fellow was out on the box with me, and making love heavier than it was raining. I staved him off all I could, and with him and the horses, me hands was full. You never see the like of the roads in them days. It was only in later years the Sydney road, I was remarking, was made good, and then times there was no made roads, and you can imagine the box. Well, sometimes you'd think the whole coach was going out of sight in them, and charging round with stumps up to the axle was considered nothing. We had more pluck in them days. Well, that night the roads was that slippery, the brake gave me all I could do. And a new horse in the back had no more notion of hanging in the breach in than a cow. So I took no notice to the lawyer, only told him to hold his mag once or twice and not be such a blitherer. But it was no use. He took a mean advantage off of me. You can imagine it was easy when I had five horses in a coach going round slippery sidelines, pitch dark and raining. He put his arms round me waist, and that raised me blood. And I tell you, things hummed a little. You'll see dawn in a tantrum one of these days. But she ain't a patch on me when Medanda was up in my young days. Looking at the fine old, flushing eyes and the steel in her still, it was easy to see the truth of this. I drawed him to take his hands off me, or I'd pull the coach up and call the inside passengers out to knock him off. He gamed me to do it, and laughed, and squeezed me harder. And the cowardly crawler actually made to kiss me. But I bit him on the nose and spat at him and took the horses over a bad gut around the fallen tree at the same time. And some people is afraid to let their blessed daughters out in a doll-socky with a titty little pony no bigger than a dog. If I had children like that, I'd give them all the chances gone of breaking their neck as they wouldn't be worth saving for anything but sausage meat. Well, this curse still kept on at his larks. So soon as I got the team on the level, it was at Saplingside and running into Teetree Creek. I could hear the creek gurgling above the sound of the rain and the white froth on the water. I can see it plain now. I pulled sudden and said, whoa! And it was beautiful the way they'd stopped dead. The passengers all suspected there must be an accident or the bush rangers must have bailed us up. For they was around in full blast in them days. Well, when I pulled up, I got nervous and ashamed and bust out crying and the passengers didn't know what to make of it. But Jim Clay, it appears, had his iron ear cocked all the time. And before anyone knew what had happened, he had the lawyer fellow weltered off of the coach and was gone into him right and left. That's what gave me a feeling to Jim Clay all of a sudden, like I never had to know one else before or since. He was always such a terrible quiet fellow that no one seemed to notice and he'd never made love to me before. But he got beside his self then and shouts, if you ever touch my girl again, I'll hammer you to smithereens. Then he got back on the bus and wiped me eyes on his handkerchief and protected me. The men inside, mostly diggers making fruit of Victoria, when they got the hang of things, bust out roaring and cheering and said, leave the dog on the road and give him a stomach ache. He tried to get up, but they pushed him off. He made great threats about the law, but mine is as the gamest man alive and loves fair play. It ain't any use in talking to them if it ain't fair play. And they give him to understand if he said anything to me about it or told anyone and didn't take his licking like a man, they'd break every burn in his body and they meant it too. Then they lured up the team and left him in the rain at pitch dark miles from anywhere. That was the only time I'd give up the reins I couldn't see for tears, so Jim drove. And the men took me inside so he could attend to his work, they said. And they cheered and joked and asked when the wedding was coming off and said they'd all come and give us a ratland spree if we'd let him know. I didn't know what come over me. I was never much for whimpering, but I cried and cried as if my heart was broke. And it wasn't because every time I thought of the way Jim Clay stuck up for me, it gave me the best feeling I ever knew. And the men was all on my side and there was no harm done and I ought to have been smiling, but I could do nothing but sob. And I always think now when I see girls crying on similar occasions to let them alone. Girls can't tell what's up with them and the cry is good because they ain't got the outlets that men has when they're worked up. We came to the end stage and when we go off the men all shook hands and one or two kissed me and pulled me girls and slapped Jim Clay on the back and called him my sweetheart. When we delivered the mail, Jim drove me to where I stayed and it was terrible embarrassing when we was left alone with no extra people to take the down off of the affair. Jim was painful shy, but he faced it manful and he said it didn't matter what they said about us being lovers. If it was disagreeable to me, he'd never mention it nor think nothing about it and it would be forgot in a day or two as he was a fellow of no importance. That was just the way he put it. He never was for putting himself up half enough. So crying again, I just snuggled up to him and I said I didn't want to forget it. I wanted to remember it more and more and with that he took the hint and kissed me and that's how we got engaged without no proposal or nothing. I didn't tell my mother or there would have been an uproar and just then Jim Clay got a coach on the Kuma line and went right away. I told him I'd wait for him. He was away two years and when he came home we found it was still the same with us. I was 18 then and him 22. He went away to Queensland for two years more and in that time the sister next to me was married and Jake there was coming on but he was never no good on the box. He pottered round and grew forage. My mother began to suggest to marry this one and that one but I waited for Jim Clay and when I was getting on for 21 all Jake Clay reckoned he was getting too old for driving in all weathers and Jim come home and took his place. A fine great fellow he was all tanned and brown with his white teeth showing among his black beard. He said he'd seen no girl that wasn't as tame as ditch water after me and as for me no one else could ever give me the feel and he could so he reckoned to be publicly engaged. It raised the most terrible bobbery and my mother nearly took a fit. She had me laid out for a swell like my sisters and she said I must be mad to throw myself away like that. My brother-in-law's got ashamed of their wife's parents being in such a trade and as they had made a comfortable bid they was going to give it best and rare a few sheep and cattle and my sisters came down on me and said I would disgrace them now they had rose their selves up in the stirrups. Mother said she'd never give her consent and I told her very saucy I'd do without it. That's why I know it don't do to press dawn over far. She must have the same fight in her and if drove in a corner there'd be no doing anything with her. Things was very strained at home then. They thought to wean me off him and Jim Clay he hung back some saying I'd better think twice before I threw myself away on him. That made me all the determineder. Jim was the only man for me. I never did have patience with them as can't make up their mind so I waited and the day I was 21 the two sisters was twins and married one at 19 and the other at 18. I gathered up a few things and I had 200 in the bank and I went to a point of the road Fertree Gully it was named and when Jim come down the hill with his horses I waved. We had it all made up and he stopped till I climbed at a board and the box seat was reserved for me that day for nothing and at the end of the stage we was married. I stayed with Jim's mother for a week or two till we seen an opening and I kept her accommodation while Jim drove a coach. Jim was always steady and we was both very popular though I never panned it to no one or put up with nothing that didn't please me. Our story was a sort of romance in them days and money was changing hands freely and we was all right. The old folk died by and by they didn't live very long and Jack there come to me. He wasn't good enough for his sisters and somehow that's made us always clean together. I ain't blind, I can see he's no miracle. He has his faults, who hasn't? The old lady fiercely demanded. I assured her I knew none and somewhat appeased by this she proceeded. Well, as I say, Jack there ain't a wonder of smartness but he's the only one belonging to the old days left to me and you couldn't understand what that means till you get to be my age. If I went to any one of your age or old enough to be your mother and said, do you remember this or that? How far back could they go with me, do you think? And then did you and Jim Clay? Me and Jim Clay was the happiest pair I think ever lived under a wedding room and it was a love match. He was quiet and easy-going like and I was the one to bustle. Consequently, there would be times when there would be a little controversy in the house but Jim he'd always put his arm around me and kiss me and that's the sort of thing a woman likes. She doesn't like all the love making to be over in the court in days as if it was only a bit efficient to catch her. Oh, of course I'd tell him to leave me alone though I couldn't bear him more than me but women has to be that way. It'd been rare to them to pretend they don't like what they do and you see, Jim always remembered how I stuck to him straight and flung up swell matches for him which must have showed I loved him. That's what gets over a man. He never forgets that in a girl and always thinks more of her than the one with the property who marries a poor girl and is always suspicious and she took him for what he has. Of course there are some crawlers of men ain't to be pleased anyhow but they can be left out of it and given advice to young wives I always tell them when they get sick of their husbands which they all do at times especially at the start before you get seasoned to endure them never to let him suspect it. For men, in spite of all their wonderful smartness has a lot of the child in them after all and can take a terrible lot of love. When it comes to giving any in return of course that's a horse of another color. But of course this isn't only dealing with a man that's worth anything. As I said there are some crawlers you could make a doormat of yourself for and they'd dance on you and think nothing of it but as I said before there must be reason in everything to begin with. After Jim died I didn't care for living in the old place and thought I'd like to get somewhere near the city. Old people ought to have sense they don't want to crawl around like Methuselah at 40 but they know when they get up to 70 they ain't going to live forever nor get any suppler in the joints nor to make some provision to get near churches and doctors and all that's necessary to old people so I sold out and bought this place down here. What family have you? Only Dawn's mother and Andrews and two sons away in America. I was misfortunate with mid-orders they both died young one as I told you and the other of typhoid and so after being done with my own family I started with others. I used to think once I'd be content to live till I see my little ones grown up and settled and then I wanted to live till I see Dawn able to take care of herself and now I suppose if I didn't take care I'd want to be waiting to see Dawn's children around me. That's the way when we get along one step we want to go another and it's good some matters ain't left for us to decide but it's all for Dawn and Andrew I bother now only for them the work would be done but it's good to have them they keep me from feeling like an old war-out dress just hanging up waiting to be eaten by the moths. Grandma, said the voice of Dawn in the doorway I can't get this beastly old stove to draw and I'm blessed if I can cook the dinner I never saw such a place one has to work under such terrible difficulties it's something fearful her voice was cross and her facial expression bore further testimony to a state of extreme irritation Grandma rose to combat she never metry sat down under any circumstances great or small terrible place indeed see if you had to provide a home what you'd have in it he was never done squawking for that stove someone else had one like it and you was going to do strokes when you got it it's always easy to complain about things when you're not the one responsible Grandma and I decided to go to the kitchen and prescribe for the stove from an idle onlookers point of view it seemed an excellent domestic implement in good health but the beautiful cook avert it would produce no heat it must be like braise said Grandma they thought it was no good and it was only because of some damper that had to be fixed yes and they had a man there to fix it for them that's the terrible want about this place there being no man about it to do anything Dawn said pointedly looking at Uncle Jake who was calmly sitting in his big chair in the corner he was not disconcerted a man who could live for years on a widowed sister without making himself worth his salt is not of the calibre to be upset by a few hints I've busted up me pants again cheerfully announced Andrew from the doorway this fortunes never comes singly Dawn just get a needle and cotton and stitch them together I never knew you when they weren't busted up and you can get another pair or hold a towel around you till Carrie comes home she's got to do the mending it's her week in the house I've got enough to worry me goodness knows Dear me said Grandma walking away as I once more volunteered to be a friend in need to Andrew when people as young and a little thing goes wrong they think they have the troubles of an empire upon them but the real troubles of life teaches them different they're a good for nothing lump anyhow Andrew wherever you've been on a Sunday morning tearing around the country Andrew threw no light on the question and his grandma repeated it where have you been I say answer me at once oh where haven't I been returned Andrew a trifle roughly I couldn't be telling you where I've been a fellow might as well be in a bloom and glass case as Carrie a pocket book around and make a map of where he's been the old lady's eyes flashed none of your cheek to me young man you're getting too big for your boots since you left school if in five minutes you don't tell me where you've been and who was with I'll screw the neck off of you nice thing when you're a child and look into me for everything that goes into your stomach and is put on your back and I'm responsible for you that you can't answer me civil your actions can't bear looking into it seems I'll go over and see Mr. Bray about it this afternoon if you don't tell me at once I ain't been anywhere only poking up and down the lanes with Jack Bray well why couldn't you say so at once without raising this frumpus then this has read any boys don't know what it is to die of illness and a lot of vexation it wasn't me roast the brumpus some people always blames others for what they do themselves he'd give a block the pip grumbled Andrew as I put the last stitch in his trousers and his grandma departed her black sundae dress rustled aggressively and her plain bibless holland apron which she never took off except when her bonnet went on for street appearance or when she went to bed and her little quaker collars and cuffs of muslin edged with lace were even more immaculate than on weekdays she scorned a cap and her features were so well cut that she looked well with gray hair wonderfully plentiful and wavy for one of her years simply parted and tidily coiled at the back this costume or toilet always fresh and never shabby was invariably completed by a style of lighthouse boots introduced to me as lastings and there was an unimpaired figure of intellect in their wearer good to contemplate in a woman of the people aged 75 it came on to rain after dinner and confined us all to the house dawn borrowed an exciting love story from miss flip grandma read a good book uncle jake still poured over the nanoon advertiser while andrew repaired a large amount of fishing tackle with which during the time I knew him I never knew him to catch a fish and karry grumbled about the rain poor karry sympathized andrew she can't get out to do a spoon with larry and the poor blood can't come in he's so sweet you know a drop of rain would melt him it would take something to melt you retorted karry the only thing I can see good in the rain is that it will keep mrs bray away and thus passed my first full day at clays end of chapter six chapter seven of some everyday folk and dawn by miles franklin this libra vox recording is in the public domain the little town of nanoon the little town situated whereaway it does not particularly matter and whose name is a palindrome is one of the oldest and most old-fashioned in australia less than three dozen miles per road and not many more minutes by train from the greatest city in the southern hemisphere yet many of its native population are more unpolished in appearance than the bushwhackers from beyond Burke the cooper and the far paru it is an agricultural region and this in some measure accounts for the slouching appearance of its people men cannot rest a first-hand living from the soil and at the same time cultivate a piccadilly clubland style and air it is a valley of small holdings being divided into farms and orchards varying in size from several to two or three hundred acres many grants were apportioned to bear in the early days representatives of the original families in some instances still hold portions of them and the stationary population has drifted into a tiny world of their own and for want of new blood have ideas caked down like most of the ground and have insted in many little characteristics distinct from the general run of the people of the state though they were when i knew them possessed of the usual human failings in an average degree they were for the most part a splendid class of population honest industrious producers who in grandma clays words keep the world going there was only a small percentage of idlers and parasites among them but they did duty with a very small-minded unprogressive set of ideas there is a place in new south wales named grab and gullon where the best potatoes in the world are grown great solid flowery beauties weighing two pounds of wild uproar are but ordinary specimens in this locality and the allegorical bush statement for illustrating their uncommon size has it that they grow under the fences and trip the horses as they travel the lanes between the paddocks similarly to explain the wonderful growth of vegetation in the fertile valley of tumet its inhabitants are sure travelers that pumpkin and melon vines grow so rapidly there that the pumpkins and melons are worn out in being dragged after them now as i strolled around the lanes of nanoon i felt the old slow waves like grabbing gullon potatoes protruding to stifle one's mental flights but there was nothing representative of the tumet pumpkin and melon vines to wear one out in a rush of progress the land was rich and beautiful and in as genial and salubrious a climate as the heart of the most exacting could desire but the residents had drifted into unenterprising methods of existence and progress had stopped dead at the foot of the great dividing range the great road winding over it bore the mark of the convicts and other traces of their solid workmanship were to be found in occasional buildings within a radius of 20 miles but their day had passed as that of the bullock dray and mail coach superseded by the haughty passenger mail and giant two-engine good strains while for quicker communication with the city than these afforded the west depended upon the telegraph wires in days gone by the swells had patronized nanoon as a weekend resort and some of their homes were now used as boarding houses while their one-time occupants had other tenement and their successes patronized for cooler altitudes farther up the blue mountains while had followed the governor to Mosfail once upon a time nanoon had rushed into an elaborate unbalanced water scheme and had lighted itself with electricity to do this it had been forced to borrow heavily so that now all the rates went to the user and no means were available for current affairs the sanitation was condemned and the streets and roads for miles as far as some municipality extended were a disgrace to it exceedingly level they possessed characteristics of some of the best thoroughfares but the wheelways were formed of round river stones which neither powered nor set and to drive along them was cruel to horses ruinous to vehicles and as trying on the nerves of travelers as crossing a stony stream bed there seemed to be nothing possible in the matter but to abuse the municipal council as numbskulls and crawlers and this was done on every hand with unfailing enthusiasm those so near the metropolis nanoon was less in touch with it than many western towns in most respects was a veritable great-grandmother for stagnation and bucolic rosticity and in individuality suggested one of the little quiet eddies near the emptying of a stream and which being called into existence by a backflow contains no current but while thus falling to the rear in the ranks of some departments of progress the little town retained a certain degree of importance as one of the busiest railway centers in the state and its engine sheds were the home of many locomotives here they were cold cleaned and oiled air taking their stiff-to-engine hall over the mountains to the wide straight pastoral and weak growing west and their calling and rumbling made cheery music all the year round accepting a short space on sundays while at night as they climbed the crests of the mountain spurs every time they fired the red light belching from their engine doors could be seen for miles down the valley thus nanoon's train service was excellent and a great percentage of the town population consisted of railway employees what is the typical Australian girl is the subject frequently discussed to find her it is necessary to study those reared in the unbroken bush those who are strangers to town life and its influences city girls are more cosmopolitan Sydney girls are frequently mistaken for new yorkers while bostonian ladies are as often claimed to be english women and it is only the bush-reared girl at home with horse gun and stock whip able to bake the family bread make her own dresses take her brothers or father's place out of doors in an emergency while at the same time competent to grace a drawing room and show herself from the present with the poets who can rightfully lay claim to be more typically australias than any other country's daughter of course the city australians are australians too australia is the land they put down as theirs on the census paper she is their native land but ah their country has never opened her treasure troves to them as to those with sympathetic and appreciative understanding of her characteristics and many of them are as hazy as a foreigner as to whether it is the cookaburra that laughs and the moped that calls or the other way about they are incapable of completely enjoying the full heat of noonday's summer sun on the plains and the evening haze stealing across the gullies does not mean all it should the exquisite rupturous enjoyment of the odor of the endless bushland when dimly lit by the blazing southern stars or the companionship of a sure-footed nag taking the lead around stony sidlings or the music of his hoofbeats echoing across the ridges as he carries a dear one home at close of day are all in a magic storehouse which may never be entered by the Goths who attempt to measure this unique and wonderful land by any standard save its own a standard made by those whose love of it engendered by heredity or close companionship has fired their blood these observations lead up to the fact that noondfolk boasted their own individuality smacking somewhat of town and country and yet of neither some of the old ones patronized the flowing beards and sartorial styles all the go way up in ironbark yet if put out back would have been as much new chums as city people and would want to regard honest unvarnished statements of bush happenings as snake yarns while the youths of these parts combined the appearance of the fire bush yokel and the city lurrican and were to be seen following the plough with cigarettes in their mouths the small holdings were cut into smaller paddocks the style of fence mostly patronized being two or three strands of savage barbed wire stretched from post to post this insufficient separation of stock was made adequate by the cattle themselves carrying the remainder of the white man's burden of fencing around their necks in the form of a hampering yoke made of a forked tree limb with a piece of plain fencing wire to close the open ends this prevented them pushing between the wires and it was a pathetically ludicrous sight to see the calves at a very tender age turned out an exact replica of their elders all the places opened onto the roads like streets and to go across country was a sore ordeal as one had to uncomfortably cross roughly up turned cropland and every few hundred yards roll under a line of barbed wire about a foot from the ground at the risk of reeking one's clothes and the certainty of dishevelment to walk out on the main roads and stumble over the loose stones ankle deep in the dust was torture some avert they had known no repairs for ten years and that they were as good as they were because to have been worse was impossible walking in this case being no pleasure i've been thought me of riding for gentle exercise and inquired of grandma clay the possibilities in that respect right there ain't nothing to write in this district only great elephant drafts or little titty ponies the size of dogs she said with unlimited scorn i never seen such crawlers they go about in them poking little sulkeys and even the men can't ride in my young days if a fella couldn't ride a buck jumper the girls wouldn't look at him and yet down here at one of the shows last year in the prize for the hunters the horses had to be all rode by one man there wasn't another young fella in the district fit to take a blessed moke over a fence i felt like going out and tackling that myself i was that disgusted there never was an advocate for this great riding that racks people's insides out and cripples them there ain't a bit of necessity for it but there is reason in everything and they're going to the other extreme and we'll have to be carried out on to the beds in ambulance soon if they keep going on as they are there's nothing as good as it was in the old days as for a woman right in here all the town will go out to gape like she was something in the travel and show business i used to ride when i come down here first that was 16 year ago but everyone asked me such questions and looked at me like a punch and duty show that i got sick of it i rode into trashes at the store there one day and when i was coming out he says will you have a chair to get on and as he didn't seem to be man enough to sling me on i said i supposed so he goes for one of them tallest chairs it would be as easy to get on the horse's head and i says thanks i'm not riding an elephant one of them little chairs would do but even that didn't seem to content him he put it high on the pavement and put the horse in the gutter then instead of putting the reins over the horse's head proper he left them on the hook and with both hands and all his might he holds the beast short by them in front of its jaw like as it was the wildest bull from the bogongs that idiot supposing the beast was flashed and pulled away from him where would i be without the reins that about finished me i was sick of it as i could not have believed any man even out of a asylum could be so simple about putting a person on a horse for this kind of exercise there seemed no promising outlet and i was put to it to think of some other as granmar said with few exceptions the only horses in the district were drafts and ponies every effect has a cause and the reason of this was that these big horses were the only ones properly adapted to agriculture and the smallness of the holdings did not admit of hacks being kept for mere pleasure so the cheapest knock about horse to maintain was a pony as not only did it take less fodder and served for the little subtle use of this place but tethered to a sulky took the wives and children abroad it was the land of sulkeys made in all sizes to fit the pony that had to draw them and of quality in accordance with the purse that paid for them and a pair of horses and a buggy was a rare sight andrew suggested that i should go rowing and glowingly recommended a little two-man craft named the alice and as i could row well in my young days i determined to test their capacity by going upstream very gently as my time was unlimited and my strength painfully the reverse it was a crisp day towards the end of april so i was feeling brisker than usual and the alice was deserving of her good reputation the noon was one of the noblest and most beautiful streams in the state and above the substantial and unique old bridge its deep calm waters stretched for about two miles as straight as a ribbon in a reach made historic because it has been the race course of some of the greatest sculling matches the world is known orange and willow trees were reflected in the clear jets of the rippler's flow and lured by its beauty the responsiveness of my craft and an unusual cheerfulness i foolishly overdid my strength i was thinking of dawn her girlish confidence regarding the desire of her hot young heart had so appealed to me that i was exercised to discover a suitable night for this and not a career i felt was the needful element to complete her life and anchor her restless girlish energy to tell her so however would ruin all time must be held till the appearance of the hero of the romance i intended to shape with this ending view i thought of recommending her grandma to let her voice be trained two years at the very least would thus be gained and if properly floated and advertised in the matrimonial field what may not be accomplished in that time by a beautiful and vivacious girl of eighteen or nineteen i was recalled from such speculations by finding that it was beyond me to roll another stroke and i was in a fix a slight wind turned to the boat and she drifted onto a fallen tree a little below the surface and they're not upsetting stuck there and was too much for me to get off at that time of the year except very occasionally the river was free from boaters and the fishers who told of the fish that used to be got there in other times so there was nothing to do but wait until my absence caused anxiety when someone would surely come after me not a very alarming plight if one were well but i felt one of my old cruel attacks was at hand which was not encouraging no one was within sight but in case there should be a plowman over a rise within hearing i cooied long and well my voice had been trained i cooied three times allowing an interval to relapse and then settled into the bottom of the boat to all weight developments soon i was disturbed by the plunk plunk of a swimmer and saw a young man approaching by strong rapid strokes it is strange how hard it is to recognize anyone when only their face is above water and one meets them in an unexpected place and though this face seemed familiar there was nothing unusual in that as i knew so many theatre patrons faces in a half fashion my rescuer having ascertained the simple nature of my dilemma and easily gaining the boat by reason of the log exclaimed why it's never you what on earth are you doing here and i responded earnest breast law it's never you what are you doing here i'm stuck on this log and i've come to get you off it he laughed yes but otherwise this may be a suitable co for a damaged hull but what can a newly launched cruiser like he be doing here i'm in training and was just taking a plunge it's first class he said enthusiastically and looking at his splendid muscles enough to delight the eye of even such a connoisseur in physique as myself and well displayed by a neat bathing suit there was no need to inquire for what he was in training it was no driveling pen and ink examination such as i could have passed myself but something needing a greek statue's strength of view are you feeling ill he considerably inquired and as i assured him to the contrary though i was feeling far from normal he put me out on the bank while he rode upstream for his clothes and returned to take me home having encased himself in some serviceable tweeds and a blue guernsey he rolled me in his coat air beginning to demolish the homeward mile an infinitesimal bagatelle to such a magnificent pair of arms i enjoyed the play of the broad shoulders and ruddy cheeks and did not talk neither did he he was an athlete not a conversationalist while i was a conversationalist lacking sufficient athletic strength to keep up my reputation just then it was very silly of you to come out alone or attempt to row in your state of health there might have been your death he presently remarked in a grandfatherly style where are you putting up at clays i know the old place with the boats he replied as the alice whizzed along i was aching for diversion i said an excuse for the rushness of my act well i can take you for a pool now i'll be here for a few weeks will you come tomorrow afternoon would three o'clock suit you he inquired as he moored the scenery is magnificent farther up the river yes if i'm not here at three o'clock you'll know that i'm not able to come you're very good earnest to waste time with me i'm only too proud to be able to row you about and expend a little despised brute force in returning all the entertainment with brains in it you have given me in the past yes at the cost of anything under seven shellings and sixpence an evening i might pay you that for rowing me put it in the hospital box he said with a laugh that displayed his strong white teeth between his firm bold lips he was all together a sight that was more than good in my eyes i found i was not strong enough to spring ashore but young brazilore managed that and my transit up the steep bank to the house with an ease and gentleness so dear to a woman's heart that the strength to accomplish it is the secret of an athlete being in 90 percent of cases a woman's ideal oh i say as he was leaving me at the gate if you mention me speak of me as are earnest as i've dropped the brazilore where i'm staying i don't want wind of my being here to get into the papers i'm practicing in the dark as i'd like to give some of the cracks a surprise looking very well i'm under an alias too so please don't forget to all except a few theatre patrons i'm as dead as ditch water but someone might recognize the old name and it would be very unpleasant right oh tomorrow at three then i'll give you a pull he said doffing his cap from his heavy ruddy locks now drying into waves and gleaming a rival hue in the setting sun as he bounded down the bank and made his way along the river edge to the bridge as his pace of sojourn was farther up than clays and on the other side the excitement of thus meeting him had somewhat revived me for here at once as though in response to my wish was a fitting night to play a leading role with my young lady the desire for whose well-being had taken grip of me for her sweet sake and the sake of the fragrant manliness of the stalwart and deserving night i straightaway resolved to enter the thankless and precarious business of matchmaking one in which i had not one iota of experience but as women have to ace marriage domesticity and mostly all the issues of life assigned them without training i did not give up heart as a first effort i determined that dawn should chaperone me when i went for my row on the morrow as i looked at the sun sinking behind the blue hills and shedding a wonderfully mellow light over the broad valley i thought of my own life in which there had been none to pull a heart easing string and the bitterness of those to whom that for which they had fought has been one so late as to be dead sea fruit took possession of me the doctors had several long and fee-inspiring terms for my malady but i knew it to be an old-fashioned ailment known as heartbreak the result of disappointment want of affection and overwork the old bitterness gripped the organ of life then it brought me to my knees i tried to call out but it was unavailing sharp fendish pain and then oblivion end of chapter seven chapter eight of some everyday folk and dawn by miles franklin this libra fox recording is in the public domain grandma turns nurse when i came to it was dark enough for lights dawn's well-molded hands were supporting my head grandma clay's voice was sternly engineering affairs and andrew was blubbering at the foot of the bed on which i was resting i tried to tell them there was no cause for alarm and to beg grandma's pardon for turning her house into a sick hospital but though not quite unconscious i appeared entirely so i wish she had sense to have gone for dr. tinker when dr. smally wasn't in said the old lady with nothing but solicitude in her voice the sternness and evidence when i had been trying to gain entrance to her house was entirely absent i'm afraid she's dead said dawn oh she ain't is she dawn sob dandrew she was a decent sort of person but pity some of those other old scotty boots that was here in the summer didn't die instead and that cemented a firm friendship between the light and myself an individual utterly alone in the world prizes above all things a little real affection presently there was a clearance in the room affected by the doctor who after a short examination pronounced my melody a complication of heart troubles gave a few instructions and further remarked send up for the mixture she isn't dead but she may snuff out before morning she's bound to go at a moment's notice sometime give her plenty of air if she has any friends she ought to be sent to them if she pulls through this grandma gave the mega detail she knew concerning me and as the practitioner whom i took to be a veterinary surgeon called in for the emergency went out he said if she dies tonight you can send me word in the morning that will be soon enough and if i don't hear from you i'll call again tomorrow she ain't going to die if i can stop her said grandma when he had departed i'll bring her to with a poultice i ain't given to be come flummoxed by what a doctor says many a one they give up is walking about as strong as bull beef today i never seen them do no good in a serious case they're right enough to set a bone or saw up a cut but when you come to think of it what could be expected of them they know a little more than us because they've hacked up a few bodies and know how the feces fit together but as for now on what's going on they ain't the almighty and ain't to be took notice of the way they know about the body is the same as you and Carrie know the kitchen we could go in the dark and feel for anything while all was well but if anything strange was there you couldn't make it out and setting to work brawing potions and applying remedies of her own the practical old lady soon brought me around so that i was able to make my apologies good heavens what do you take us for she exclaimed it would be a fine kind of a world if we wasn't a little considerate to each other it was the young people good to learn them a little kindness i couldn't be asking people like Carrie there to wait on people but it's dawn's week in the house and she'll look after you and you needn't be wanting to clear out to the hospital you won't be no better looked after there than here never was more tactful kindness on shorter acquaintance little miss flip undertook to sit by my bed during the early watches of the night for they could not be persuaded to leave me alone her eyes bore evidence of many more sleepless watches but the poor little thing did not unburden her heart to me dawn appeared to relieve her at two a.m. and the engaging child manfully struggled against the sleep that led into the pretty blue eyes to a morning when grandma brisk as a cricket took her turn at eleven i was interested by the doctor's entrance he came on tiptoe but like a great proportion of male tiptoeing it defeated its intention and made more noise than walking bearing down upon grandma he inquired in a huge whisper how is she at this juncture i opened my eyes so he cheerfully remarked in a strong twang known by some supercilious english as the beastly colonial accent so you didn't peg out after all this being the language applied to stock confirmed in me the notion that he was a veterinary i had once before heard it applied to a human being in a far bush place where a man who lived unhappily with his wife one morning remarked to a neighbor that the missus nearly pegged out last night and it was considered a fitting remark for such a monster as this man was supposed to have been but this doctor said it quite naturally i found him a friendly and communicative fellow and as he gave in an hour's course with grandma and me for one fee i was willing to take it to pass away a dull morning what on earth did you go rowing for he asked me the roads are too bad to go walking that's only within range of the municipality the council wants bursting up they can't do anything with everything mortgage to old dr tinker he holds the whole thing it's a pity he wouldn't peg out one of these nights and we might get something done but it's not him who has the money it's the old woman that's her mrs bray was telling us while up to the girl for being admired by the old doctor explained grandma money that's what he married her for continued the doctor i don't know where he could have picked her up some say she's a publican's widow but jackson the solicitor here has a different hypothesis he says he said her running along carrying five cups and sauces of tea at once and no one but a ship's waitress could do that at any rate she's a great man of a woman can swear like a tripper if things don't go right she's got the old man completely cowed am i to infer that cowering her spouse and swearing outrageously makes her man like a laconically inquired but the doctor's understanding didn't seem to go in for small satirical detail he conversed on a more wholesale fashion rattling on for a good half hour to a patient for whom quietude was necessary lest she should peg out ain't here boska enthusiastically commented andrew coming in to see what i had thought of this doctor who is the idol of an anoon has he a large practice i cautiously inquired seeking to discover was he really a doctor my word nearly all the people go to him he's so friendly and don't stick on the jam speaks to you everywhere and has jokes about everything he's a fine man corroborated grandma yes must be more than six feet high i responded and such a gentleman he's never above having a yarn with you about anything and everything oh well i said anytime i take these turns just send for him one doctor was as harmless as another to me i knew it would relieve the household to have a medico and he could not injure me seeing i accorded his medicine and advice about as much difference as the hum of a mosquito is he a family man i asked yes so there are all your chances gone in one slap said karry appearing to inquire my state i did not tell her there was the most insuperable of all barriers in the way of my marrying anyone and that i had no desire if i could the first i did not want known and the second would not be believed if it were because though woman is somewhat escaping from her shackles the skin of old crawl subjection still clings sufficiently tight for it to be beyond ordinary belief that one could be other than constantly on the lookout to secure a birth by appending herself to some man and more especially does this suspicion hang over a spinster with her hair as gray as mine and who takes up a position at a boarding house which is supposed to be the common hunting ground of women forced onto the matrimonial warpath he has seven little children and one's a baby and his wife is a poor broken down little thing near always in the hospital you'd wonder how he married her he's such a fine-looking man vouchsafe dandru such a fine man that you'd wonder concerning several other patent facts about him i responded there was quite a chorus in favor of him now he was evidently a true gentleman in his patience eyes because he was not above stopping to talk to them in their own vernacular about local gossip and had the reputation of great good nature in regard to the bills of the poor and they loved his jokes they were of the class within grasp of the elementary sense of humor of his audience this type of gentleman he undoubtedly was but to that possessed of graceful tact and expressing itself in good diction by some considered necessary attributes of a gentleman he could lay no claim neither could he to that ideal enshrined in my heart who would not have had seven little children one of them a baby and a poor little broken down wife at the same time but as to what is really a gentleman depends on the attitude of the mind end of chapter eight chapter nine of some everyday spoken dawn by miles franklin this libra vox recording is in the public domain the night has a stolen view of the lady grandma clay kept me in bed that day so i forgot all about my appointment on the river until sometime after three when andrew announced from the doorway a man wants to know can he see you who can he be he's a pudding-faced red-headed bloke wearing a blue sweater under his coat like the bike riders was andrew's very unnightly description of the night whom i had chosen to play lead in the drama of the beautiful young lady at clays that's a particular friend of mine you may show him in i said wouldn't dawn to be woken up first and told the scoot out of that said he dawn was one of those young beings so thoroughly annoyed to easy living that the few hours sleep she had lost the night before had made her so dozy when she had come to keep me company now that i had persuaded her to rest beside me on the broad bed where much against andrew's sense of propriety she was fast asleep i'll hide her thus i said covering her with a counter pain for it would not be good stage management to allow the lady to escape when a fitting night was on the threshold this satisfied andrew who withdrew to usher in the pudding-faced red-headed bloke who sat in the doctor's chair and made a few ordinary remarks about the weather and some equally kind about my state of health when in the company of ladies the only brilliance and evidence about my young friend was the color of his hair so there was little danger of his waking dawn with his chatter as he sat inwardly consumed with a desire to escape as i lay with my hand where i could feel the girl's healthy breathing i wondered would she too dismiss my chosen night as pudding-faced and red-headed or would she see him with my eyes his locks certainly were of that most attractive shade hair can be and his looks were further enhanced by a clear tanned skin and dark eyes his large clean-shaven features had the fullness and rawness of unspent youth in full bloom and he was far from the small bullet-headed type which accounted for andrew's designation of pudding-faced i had always found him one of the most virile and upright young creatures i had ever seen and he had endeared himself to me by his simple untainted manliness and the fragrant evidence of health his presence distilled dawn too was so robust that there was a likelihood of her being attracted by her opposite and inclined to favor a carpet night before one of the open field some men have brain and muscle but this is a combination as rare as beauty and high intellect in women and almost a startling in its power for good or evil but apart from the combination a wholesome athlete is generally the more lovable when his brawn is coupled with a good disposition he sees in woman a fragile flower that he longs to protect and measuring her weakness by his beautiful strength is easily imposed upon his muscle is an engine a woman can unfailingly command for her own purposes whereas brilliance of intellect though it may command a great public position in the reflected glory of which some women love to bask nevertheless under pressure in the domestic arena is liable to be too sharply turned against wives mothers and daughters to be a comfortable piece of household furniture on the other hand the athlete may have the muscles of a samson and yet being slow of thought and speech be utterly defenseless in a woman's hands no matter how aggravatingly wrong she may be he cannot bring brute force to bear to vanquish a creature so delicate and being possessed of no other weapon he is compelled to cultivate patience and good temper also health and strength are conducive to equability of temper and hence the domestic popularity of the man of brawn above the one of brain who is not infrequently exacting and crossly egotistical in his family relations where the other would be lenient and go easy the silence of my guest and myself was presently broken by dawn turning about under the counter pain good gracious what have you got there inquired earnest is it that old terrier you used to have terrier indeed i have here a far more beautiful pet because you are such a good child i will allow you just one glance come now be careful the girl's dress was unbuttoned at the throat displaying a perfect curve of round white neck her tumbled brown curls straight over the dimpled oval face the long jetty lashes resting on the flushed cheeks fringed some eyelid curves that would have delighted an artist the curling lips were slightly parted showing the tips of her pretty teeth and the lifted coverlet disclosed to view as lovely a sleeping beauty as any of the armored knights of old ever fought and died for the latter day one politely curious regarding my pet bent over to record a casual glance but the vision meeting his eyes sent the blood in a crimson wave over his tanned cheeks and caused him to draw back with a start it was inconsistent that he should have been so completely abashed at the sight of a fully dressed sleeping girl who was placidly unconscious of his gaze when it was his custom to regularly occupy the stalls and enjoy the choruses and ballets composed of young ladies very wide awake and wearing only as much covering as compelled by the law but where is consistency i had no idea it would be a young lady he stammered keeping his eyes religiously lowered and fidgeting in a palsy of shyness such as used to be an indispensable accomplishment of young ladies in past generations just take a good look she'll bear inspection i said i'd rather not the young lady might not like it but i'm giving you permission she's mine and then run before she discovers you have pirated a glance i will keep the secret he lifted his eyes but so swiftly and hesitatingly that i could not be sure that he had discerned the beauty that was blushing half unseen instead of being displayed under limelight and drawn attention to by brass trumpets in accordance with the style of this advertisement age as Ernest went out andrew came in and awakened dawn with a request to make him some donuts for tea but she ordered him to go to carry as it was her week in the kitchen bust this week in the kitchen a fellow can hear nothing else it's enough to give in the pip it ought to be put up like a notice so it could be known he grumbled as he departed that evening mrs bray made one of her calls which were always more good-natured regarding the length of time she gave us than the tone of her remarks about people the famous mrs tinker it appeared from the latest account of her vagaries had enlivened the lives of nunoon inhabitants by swearing in a hair lifting manner at one of the local shows because the horses had not been awarded first prize etc etc whether as carry a bird it was this conversation that did the mischief or not the fact remains that i became too faint to speak and the girls would not leave me all night i lay that way all the next day too so that when Ernest called to make inquiries and discovered my state he took a turn at making himself useful prevailing upon grandma clay to allow him to do so by explaining that he was a very firm friend of mine and had had some experience of imbalance owing to his mother having been one for some years before her death both of which statements were perfectly true as i improved i was anxious to discover what impression he had made on the household and cautiously sounded them he seems to be a chap with some heart in him said grandma he put some of these fine lardy dars to shame always like a man that ain't above attending on a sick person like jim clay he could put a polkas on and lift up a sick person better and all the one i ever see it's always jim clay said dawn in an irreverent aside i never heard of a man yet whether he was tall or short or squat or lean or younger old but he was like jim clay if he did any good i'm about dead sick of him you don't seem to remember jim clay was your grandfather i said as his relic left the room and that he is very dear in your grandmother's memory it is pleasing how she recalls him wait till your hair is gray my dear and if you have someone as dearly enshrined in your heart it will be a good sign that your life has not been without savor yes of course i do forget to think of him as my grandfather never hearing of him only as this everlasting jim clay and if he was like that redheaded fellow it would take a lot of him to be remembered as anything but a big pug looking creature that i'd be ashamed to be seen with this was not a proprietor's first impression and as she was inclined to be sensorious i considered it diplomatic to point out his detractions knowing that the combative propensity of the young lady would then seek for recommendations yes he is a great unattractive redheaded looking lump isn't he oh i wouldn't say that he looks fine and healthy at all events and i do like to see a man that doesn't make one afraid he'll drop to pieces if you look at him but he's hopelessly redheaded i opined but it isn't that sandy and sippid sort of red it's very dark and thick and his skin is clear and brown not that mangy looking sample that usually goes with red hair contended dawn and being willing that she should retain this opinion i let the point go there is one advantage in heart trouble that it often departs a suddenly as it attacks and ere it was again carries weak in the house i was once more able to stroll round and depend upon andrew for entertainment he invited me to the dairy to see him turn to the hand cream separator and i remained to drive the discs out of its bowl while he washed them he had a conversational turn and in his choice of subjects was a patriot he never went out of his realm for imported themes but entirely confined his patronage to those at hand this day his discourse was of blow flies i cared not though it had been of manure i had knocked around the sharp corners of life sufficiently to have got a sensible adjustment of weights and measures refinements and vulgarities besides i gratefully remembered the tears andrew had shed during my illness and bore in mind that many a dandy who could please me by his phrasology of choice anecdotes could not be more than bored though i might die in torture at his feet my word i'm thankful for the winter for one thing he began and that's because there ain't any blow flies they give you the pip in the summer they used to be here blow on everything they come across they'd blow the cream if we left it a day they'd blow you if you didn't look sharp i had whiskey taught to catch him here whiskey whiskey and as that mongrel appeared his master tossed him pellets of curds dipped in cream and grinned delightedly as they were fiercely snapped he thinks it's blow flies great little whiskey good little whiskey catch and blow flies but jove i've had enough of farming he continued it's the god forsakenest game but my grandma won't let me check it i noticed no one with any sense stays farming they all get a job on the railway or take to auctioneering or something with money in it you're always scratching on a farm you should have been here in the summer when the tomatoes was ripe couldn't get rhythm for a song couldn't get cases enough they rotted in the field till the stink of them was worse than a chow's camp and what didn't rot was just cooked in the sun peaches the same and grape big melons for a chilling a dozen that's farming for you the only time you could sell things would be when you haven't got them whiskey can eat melon like a gooden and grapes too andrew now threw out the wash up water pitching it on to whiskey he went away whimpering aggrievably much to the delight of his master and illustrating that even the favorite pet of a youth has something to put up with in this imperfect life end of chapter nine chapter ten of some everyday folk and dawn this libra vox recording is in the public domain provincial politics and semi suburban dentists may dawned over the world and throughout new south wales awoke a stir reaching even to the sleepy heart of noone this was owing to the fact that the state parliament was near the end of its term and political candidates for the ensuing election were already in the field though not many decades settled the country had progressed to nationhood england allowing the precocious youngster this freedom of self-government and sending her crown prince to open her first commonwealth parliament then the fledgling nation bravely in the van of progress had invested its women with the tangible hallmark of full being or citizenship by giving them a right to a voice in the laws by which they were governed and now watched by the older countries whose women were still in bondage the women of this australian state were about to take part in a political election not for the first time either let them curtsy to the liberality of their countrymen the federal elections for which women were entitled to stand as senatorial candidates had come previously and though old prejudice had been too strong to the extent of many votes to grasp that a woman might really be a senatorix and that a vote cast for her would not be wasted still one woman candidate had polled fifty one thousand four hundred and ninety seven votes where the winning candidate had gone in on eighty five thousand three hundred eighty seven and this had been no shrieking sister such as the clever woman is depicted by those who fear progress but a beautiful refined educated and particularly womanly young lady in the heyday of youth the cowardly old sneer that disappointment had driven her to this had no footing here as she had every qualification except empty-headedness to have ensured success as a bell in the social world had she been disposed to pad her own life by means of a wealthy marriage instead of endeavouring to benefit her generation and becoming a legislator she was a fitting daughter of the land of the southern sun whose sons were among the first to admit their sisters to equal citizenship with themselves and she brilliantly proved her fitness for her right by her wonderful ability on the hustings which had been free from any vehicle shortcoming and unacquainted with hesitation in replying to the knotious question regarding the most intricate bill the federal election however in a sense had been farther away fought at long range while that of the state was brought right to one's backdoor the federal campaign had been freer from the provincial bickering which was a prominent feature of the state election and made it a more hand-to-hand contest where every elector was worthy of consideration and though women were debarred from entering the state parliament yet they were now beings worth forning upon for a vote and their addition to the ranks of the electors gave matters a decided Philip the first intimation that the campaign had actually started reached me one afternoon when dawn drove me into town to see a dentist the whole clay household had risen up against me patronising a local dentist there are only blacksmiths said Andrew I could tinker up a tooth as good as they can with a bit of sealing wax however I could get no doctor to give me a longer lease of life than 12 months and as it was not a very important tooth I considered the local practitioners were sufficient to the evil the afternoon before when Ernest had dropped in to see me I had casually mentioned that dawn and I were going uptown next day so therefore what more natural than as we entered the main street to see him very busily inspecting wares in the subtlest shop articles for which he could have no use and which if he had a man of his means could obtain of superior quality from Sydney I diplomatically and dawn ostentatiously failed to notice him as we drove past to where was displayed the legend S. Messer chemist and dentist late cc rock snake and where dawn halted saying at the 11th hour you ought to go to Sydney charlie rock snake was all right but I don't care for the look of this fellow going to Sydney however would not serve my ends nearly so well as consulting S. Messer for while I was with him dawn would remain outside and what more certain than that Mr. R. Ernest Bresselaw walking up the street and quite unexpectedly aspiring her and being such a friend of mine should dawdle with her awaiting my reappearance while growing inwardly wishful that it might be long delayed I knocked on the counter of the dusty dirty shop and after a time an extraordinary person appeared behind it are you Mr. Messer I believe so hold hard a bit probably he went to ascertain who he really was for I was left sitting alone until a splendidly muscular figure in a fashionable pattern of tweeds halted opposite the vehicle holding my driver I was quite satisfied with Mr. S. Messer's methods though his initial as Andrew a bird might very well have stood for silly the golfing cap came off the heavy red locks while the bright brown ones under the smart felt hat with the pom-poms bobbed in response and Mr. S. Messer came upon me again wiping his fingers on a soiled towel and tugging each one separately after the manner of childhood did you want a tooth pulled well I wish to consult you gently but not in public I said as two ancients came in and listened with all their features well hold hard a bit and I'll take you inside I held or rather sat hard on the tall hard chair and heard Ernest explaining to dawn that he had been swimming in the sun which made his face as red as his hair for he gave her to understand that such was not his usual complexion his red locks very dark and handsome which lent him a distinction and it dared him to me was such a sensitive point with him that his mind was continually reverting to them and that audacious dawn unkindly replied it wouldn't do to be all red if my hair were red I'd dye it green or blue but red I would not have but it's a good serviceable color for a man meekly protested the night perhaps a fighting man retorted the young minx with no contradictory twinkle in her eye but I could never trust a redheaded person all that I know a deceitful I was dismayed how would a gentle young athlete whether this to a perky little man of more wits than muscle or to a gay old lethario it would have been an incentive to the chase but I feared dawn was too horribly uncompromisingly given to speaking what she felt irrespective of grace to expand this young Romeo to love but much merciless fire will be stood from beauty and he made a valiant defence there are exceptions to every rule miss dawn I never was known as deceitful ask anyone who knows me I don't know anyone who knows you ask your friend inside I think she'll give me a good character quite the reverse if you heard what she says about you you'd never be seen in the noon again but this assertion was made with such a roguish smile on eye and lip that earnest took up a closer position by stepping into the gutter and placing one foot on the step of the sulky and a corresponding hand on the dashboard railing and in that position I left them with yellow-haired miss chimney from the corner pub walking by on the broken asphalt under the verandas and casting a contemptuous and condemnatory glance at the forward dawn who favored the men Mr. S. Messer made the way to a place at the back of the shop which was laid with dust and strewn with cotton wool and dental appliances some of them smeared from the preceding victims evidently he did not seem to know how to dispose of me so I placed myself in the professional chair and invited him to examine the broken molar the light is bad in here he remarked fumbling with my head and making towards my face with one of the soiled instruments that is not my fault I replied this is him he further remarked tapping my cheek with a finger yes he wants patching so he leads me to imagine the nerve would want killing quite so and to attend to its wants I'm here I'd take eight shillings to kill the nerve or to use them as an apparatus to execute it then I'd take 12 or 13 shillings to fill it he continued I was interested in the uniqueness of his methods would you purpose to powder the shillings or use them whole I would have thought in alligators or sharks tooth would scarcely require that quantity of material Mr. Messer stared at me in a dazed manner I wouldn't touch the tooth under that he continued is there another tooth under it then extract this one and give the other a fair chance it would be a lot of trouble he kept on without especially replying to my remark perhaps so when one comes to think of it teeth I suppose are not filled without some exercise on the part of the dentist I wouldn't think of touching that tooth for less than a guinea why it would take at least an hour to do it this is the first intimation I've had that dentists calculated to mend teeth without spending any time on them I said Mr. Messer didn't seem to grasp the drift of my remarks and as I felt unequal to maintaining the conversation for a more extended period I announced my intention of thinking about what he had said he said it would be as well and I emerged to find earnest had so far progressed as to be seated in a sulky holding my parasol over dawn youth and beauty is privileged to command an athlete to hold its sunshade while old age has difficulty in finding so much as a small boy to carry its basket across the street may have this is why it is largely the elderly and frequently the unattractive people who fight for honest rights for their class and sex while it is from pretty young women's lips issues most of the silly rubbish and then to being entirely women's fault that men will not conform to their influence in all matters only a very small percentage can regard conditions from any but a selfish point of view or conceive of any but their own shoe pinch I happen to see miss dawn here and waited to ask how you are said earnest just what you should have done I replied and now if you can wait till I investigate another dentist I want your opinion on a purchase I'm making oh certainly he hastened to reply I'm doing a loaf this afternoon I thought I had my all crack this morning so came for some leather to tack round it this in a elaborate explanation of his presence there the second dentist proved the antithesis of his contemporary being short pleasant and bright I'll tell you what he said laughing engagingly the best thing to be done with that tooth is to dress it with carbolic acid now this is a secret one of those that only a few don't know I suppose perhaps so he said laughing still more pleasantly you can do this tooth just as well as I can get three pen a worth of acid and put some in once or twice a day and the nerve will be dead in two or three days and I'll do the rest as he proved such an amiable individual very probably and exceedingly suburban dentist I got rid of half an hour and desultory chat as I could see from the window that the night and the lady if not progressing like a house on fire or at least enjoying themselves in a casual way did you have only one tooth to be attended to inquired dawn when I appeared yes and I fear that it will be one too many for noon dentists I replied I could think of nothing upon which to ask Ernest's advice so I feigned that I was not feeling well enough for any further worry that afternoon but we command his services at a future date I now held the pony while dawn disappeared into a shop and reappeared with an acquaintance who invited us to attend a political meeting that night the electors alarmed at the prodigal parentheses of the sitting government for forming an opposition league to remedy matters and the first step was to choose one of the two candidates offering themselves as representatives of this party for noon the first one was to speak that night in the citizens hall and by paying a shilling one could become a member of the league and vote for this candidate or the other oh if only I had a vote regretfully exclaimed to dawn he's a young chap named Walker from Sydney very rich I believe do you know him mrs politics inquired of me I've heard of him I said exchanging glances with Ernest and should like to hear him if convenient I'll drive you in volunteered dawn if you're around you might act as groom I suggested to Ernest and he gladly responding it was agreed that we should begin electioneering that night I knew Ernest would be delighted to be with us he takes great pleasure in my company I remarked with assumed complacence as we drove home and I watched a dawn smile at my conceit in imagining anyone took pleasure in my company while she was present and that any normal mile under 90 should do so would have been so phenomenal that she had reason for that derisive little smile you said he was hopelessly redheaded she remarked why I think he has a handsome kind of red hair I never thought red hair could be nice but mr Ernest's is different I smiled to myself I never thought much of men but this one is different has been said by more than one bride and I never could suffer infants but this kid is different to all I've seen is an expression often heard from proud young fathers his young lady thinks so at all events I innocently remarked and we fell into silence complete end of chapter 10 chapter 11 of some everyday folk and dawn by miles franklin the slip of ox recording is in the public domain Andrew disgraces his raring the silence that fell upon dawn and myself was unbroken when we went to tea and seemed to have affected the whole company or else it was the conversational powers of Andrew who was absent which we're wanting to enliven us he ought to be home said grandma he's got no business away and the place can't be kept in an uproar for him when the girls want to go out the old lady had determined to take a vigorous interest in politics and spoke of going to hear the meetings later on herself it presently transpired that Andrew had not been looking to his grandma for all that went into his stomach so religiously as he should have been just as he was under discussion he made a dramatic entry and fell breathlessly in his grandma's armchair near the fireplace the usual occupant gladded him in astonishment and demanded an explanation which came immediately but not from Andrew instead there was allowed an imperative knocking at a side door and when Carrie after cursing the white ants which had made the door hard to open by throwing it out of plum with their ravages at last got it open there appeared an irate old man carrying a stout stick it was plain that he too had been running in short was in pursuit of Andrew who had quite collapsed in the chair i've come missus to warn you to keep your boy out of my orange orchard he gulped six or seven times i've nearly caught him and young bray in it but tonight i run him down and only they escaped me i'd have given the father of a scalpin if i catch him there again i'll bring him before the court and give him three months but you've been a neighbor i'd like to give you a show of keeping him out first the old dame a la herself had been in the act of pouring milk and sprinkling sugar on some boiled rice which frequently appeared on the menu during Carrie's week in the kitchen previous to handing it to miss flip but she waved her hand thereby indicating that in so dire an extremity we were to be trusted with the sugar base and ourselves in fact that any laxity in this item would have to be let slide for once after the manner of finely strung temperaments with the steel in them which were so well and to the last remain as sensitive as a youth or maiden mrs. Martha clay then rose from her seat visibly trembling but with a flashing battle light in her eyes what have you got to say to this she demanded turning on her grandson i never touched none of his blue and old oranges it was jack bray it wasn't me yes said she and if you was listening to jack bray it would be you done at all and he who never done nothing what's the charge and what damages have you laid on it she demanded of the accuser fixing him with a fiery glance i ain't going to lay any damages this time i only thought you'd rather me warn you than not i know i would with the youngster i suppose after he ain't done no more than you and me done in our young days and my oranges being ripe so extra early was a great temptation familiarly said the man well i don't know what you done in your young days but i know i never took a pin that didn't belong to me none of me children or people either and as for jim clay he wouldn't think of touching a thing he was too much the other way to get on in the world and ain't any fault of my rarer and that my grandson is hounded down a vagabond said the old lady in a tragic manner seeing her fear such a tation the lads pursuer was alarmed and sought to pacify her by further remarking he ain't done nothing out of the way and i admit the oranges was a great temptation the old lady snorted and the color of her face heralded something verging on an apopleptic seizure temptation if people was only honest and decent by keeping from the things that ain't any temptation we'd be all fit for jail or asylum pretty thing if he's only to leave alone that which ain't any temptation to him you could put other people's things before me i wouldn't take him not if me tongue was hanging out a yard for him that's the kind of honesty that i've always practiced to me know this and read into anyone under me and that's the only kind of honesty that is honesty at all she's blendedly finished and i'm very thankful to you for informing me i wish you had caught him and sculpt the hide-off of him it's what i'll do myself soon as i sift the matter the old man bathed good night and departed with his stick he's always sneaking about the lanes and only poked his tongue out at me when i wanted to know where he was maliciously said uncle jake in reference to his grand-nephew mean old hide always like to sit on anyone when they're down whispered dawn and carry to each other a pity andrew hadn't had two tongues to stick out at him miss flip was too dull to be aroused by even this disturbance the only time she showed any feeling was when her uncle paid her clandestine visits her life seemed to be in a terrible tangle more than that in a service but i did not take a hand in further crushing her she had been kind to me during my indisposition and except in extreme cases live and let live was an axiom i had learned to carefully regard knowledge of the slight chance of circumstances or opportunity which too frequently is the only difference between a good person and a bad one success and failure reminds one to be very lenient regarding human frailty now me young shaver i'll deal with you said grandma turning to andrew in whom there appeared to be left no defense never have i seen so older woman in such a towering rage and rarely have i seen one of seventy five with vigor sufficiently unimpaired to feel so extremely as she gave evidence of doing this is the first time anything like this has ever happened in my family and if i thought it wouldn't be the last i believe i'd kill you where you are andrew admitted no sound he had given himself up with that calmness one of inches when the worst is upon them when there is nothing further beyond go off to bed as you are without a bit to eat she continued plucking at her little collar as though to get air tomorrow i'll see the braze about this and i'll scalp the skin off of you i do it now only there's no nine where i'd end i feel that terrible upset what would jim clae think now i wonder he'd god forsaken young vagabond bringing disgrace upon me at this time of my life i'd be ashamed to walk uptown and give me vote as i was looking forward to and the grandson nearly in jail for stealing stealing it's a nice sounding word in connection with one of your own that you've read strict ain't it you snuffed up mighty smart when i asked you your doings now it comes out why you couldn't account for him might as well be in a bloom and glass cases have to carry a pocket book round and make a map of where he's been says he it appears a map of your doings wouldn't pass examination by the police how would you have been making an honest way in the world if i wasn't here to be responsible for you old grandma said dawn seeking to calm her lest the excitement would be too much after all it mightn't be so bad lots of boys take a few poultry oranges out of the gardens and no one makes such a fuss but that old creature he just wants to be a fishes this was an injudicious attempted peace is that you speak and dawn lots of boys do it perhaps you will also say lots of girls come home with a baby in their arms once you get the idea in your head that there's no harm because lots do it your honor express train to the devil lots of people do things and some don't and that's the only difference between the vagabonds i've never been and the decent folk i'd cut me throat if i wasn't among and you're the last person i would ever have thought would have upheld a thief well grandma protested dawn i don't uphold him i'm ashamed to be related to him but don't make yourself ill now sleep on it and tomorrow give him rats remember this continued grandma and carry the knowledge through life with you that i can't make your character for you each one has to make their own but seeing the foundation you've been give makes you a disgrace to it it takes you all your time for years and years putting in good bricks to make a good character but you can get rid of it forever in one act don't forget that and remember that belonging to a respectable family won't stop you from being a thief you're very quick to talk about some of these poor rag tag about town and i suppose you and jack bray thought you couldn't be the same but you found out your mistake go to bed now and i'll love you well tomorrow she concluded encouragingly and andrew lost no time in taking this remand looking to use his own expression as though he had the pip dear me sighed the old lady them as has read any boys don't know what it is to die of arduous and want a vexation if it ain't something beyond belief one might be that respectable theirself that could be put in a glass case and yet here would be a young vagabond bringing them to shame before the whole district but i don't see that he has done anything very terrible hastily interposed miss flip good gracious if he had been cheeking someone or playing a far-fetched joke i might be able to forgive him but there must be reason in everything and to go in metal with others property is carrying things too far heed the sparkle you may dread the fire there's a piece of wisdom i've always took to heart in rare in my family and i noticed them as they're inclined to look leniently on evil no matter how small never come out the clean potato in the finish trenchantly concluded the old woman and miss flip was so disconcerted that she immediately retired to her room but noticed by no one but me probably the poor girl if gifted with any capacity for retrospection wished that she had heeded the spark that she might not now be in danger of being consumed by the fire end of chapter 11 chapter 12 of some everyday folk and dawn by miles franklin this libra vox recording is in the public domain some side play as andrew was banished and grandma determined to retire to ponder upon his sin she waved at being curry's wake in the kitchen and consequently her duty to prepare supper coffee and suggested that we younger woman should all go to the meeting but miss flip refused on the score of a headache poor creature observed grandma i think she's afraid of her attack of her old complaint she looks that terrible bag and don't take interest in anything she wants rousin out of herself more she ain't a girl that will provide anything to one but her uncle is coming up again tomorrow and i think i'll speak to him when karry dawn and i arrived at the citizens hall earnest was already waiting to act groom while larry wittcombe also accidentally hovered near he quite as casually took possession of karry so there was nothing for a common individual like myself but to become extremely self-absorbed so that my keen observation might not be an interception of any interest likely to circulate between the night and the lady the latter seemed to be in one of her contrary moods so attached herself to me like a barnacle settled me in a seat one from the wall and preemptorily indicated to earnest that he was to take the one against it put herself carefully away from him on the outside a wag would have arranged the party to suit himself but that was beyond earnest he meekly sat down beside me with a helplessness possible only to the sturdiest athlete in the room when in the hands of a fair and willful maid i could have come to his rescue but deemed it wiser not to thrust him upon dawn for the present we had arrived very early so there was time for conversation encouraged by me earnest went forward and addressed a few remarks to dawn which she received so coolly that he just straightly talked to me instead and as people began to gather above the majority tell the fair head and striking profile of him i had first seen dealing in pumpkins and who was colloquially known as dora you would dawn beckoned him to the seat beside her which he took with alacrity a rollicking laugh and a crimsoning face which in conjunction with a double chin bespoke the further partnership of a large and well-satisfied appetite i haven't seen you for an age said dawn with unusual graciousness i assure you wanted to see me he inquired with an amorous look dawn used to have the witching eyes of blue in a laughing glance you know you only have to give me the wink and you'll see me as often as you want straight forwardly confessed dora but dawn having encouraged him to a certain distance had a mind to bring him no mirror i don't care if i never saw you again she said bluntly but grandma likes yawning with you that's why i inquired dora looked very red in the face indeed house miss calper mercilessly pursued dawn going to the point about which she was curious as this characteristic of swains and maids of her degree i hope she's well so do i said you would you're used to our scarf to her health about twice a day i thought you would be taking her to loose and farm to relieve your anxiety and in response to this dora sealed his fate as far as my feeling any compunction whether he singed his wings or not in the light of dawn's bright candle for he said with a touch of provado oh i was only pulling her leg to do the man justice he did not seem down to the full unmanliness of this statement it appeared more one of those nasty and utter remarks to which all are prone when in a tight corner and speaking on the spur of the moment oh that was all said dawn mockingly it was very nice of you are you always so kind and thoughtful i'm thinking of clearing out to sydney in a day or two i've spent enough time lifeing the only thing that has kept me here so long is that i wanted to hear how les got on in his maiden speech we're not much to each other but when a fellow has no one belonging to him he feels a claim on the most distant connection said earnest on the other side of me his interest in leslie walker's maiden speech had been developed as suddenly as his opinion that he had spent enough time in a boat on the river noone the connection he mentioned between himself and the candidate about to speak was that old walker whose only son the latter was had married a widow with one son by name earnest brazilore both these parents were now dead leaving the stepbrothers as their only offspring the lads had been reared together and though of utterly different tastes and callings a mutual regard existed between them walker had passed his examinations at the bar and brazilore had been trained to electrical engineering but both being wealthy neither followed their professions except in a nominal way walker had put in his time in society motoring floating traveling doubling in the arts and building a fine town mansion while earnest had spent all his time in athletic training with the result that walker had fallen a prize in the marriage arena while earnest was yet in full possession of his bachelorhood any further conversation was out of the question as the candidate a smart clean shaven man with clearly cut features now appeared and announced himself by removing his new straw decker and calling out ladies and gentlemen before we begin i would like to follow the democratic principle of asking you to choose a chairman from among yourselves we propose mr oscalaya called several voices naming a popular townsman and this being seconded the candidate and the people's chairman two very gentlemanly looking men for the hostings ascended to the stage side by side the chairman took up a position behind a little red table supporting a water bottle and smudgy tumbler while leslie walker sat on another chair at the end of it many members of parliament having risen to their position from coal heaving or hotel keeping when going on the warpath a second time take great pains to get themselves up in accordance with their idea of the dignity of their office many old fellows roaring give me a vote so i'm the only bloke to save the country and see you get your rights dress this modest role in a long-tailed satin-faced frock coat a good thing in the trouser line and a stylish buttonhole but leslie walker one of the champagne set had made equally palpable efforts to dress himself down to his present debut for sure his suit which comprised an alpaca coat with a crumpled tail must have been the shabbiest he had while the glistening new white sailor hat had probably been procured at the last moment in the vain imagination that dressed as he would it was not evident at a first glance that he had had the bread and butter problem solved for him by a provident parent before his birth and that he lived what is designated the cultured life far and autocratically above sympathy with the vulgar and despised herds upon whose sweat his class built the pretty villas front in the harbour charge hortily along the roads in automobiles and sail the graceful yachts on the idyllic quarters of port jackson by jove les has different ambitions from mine said earnest i'd rather have to stand up to a mill with the champion pug than face what he's on for tonight doesn't he look a case in that get up supposing he gets in what the devil good will it do then and it takes such crawling to get into parliament nowadays there are too many at the game i could never face the way one has to flatter some of these old creatures for their vote i'd rather plug them under the jaw mr oscar lawyer having introduced the speaker he came forward and after explaining it was his first appearance in politics charmingly proceeded i hope i shall not bore you with my remarks as i endeavour to outline the various planks in the platform of the party to which i have the honor to belong quite superfluous for him to explain that he was a new chum in politics only a fledgling from a brussels or axements to carpeted reception room would stand on the hustings and publish a fear that he might be boring his audience one familiar with the trade of electioneering as it has always been conducted by men would struct and shout and brag never for a moment worrying whether or not he came anywhere near the truth or feeling the slightest qualm though he had deafened his heroes with his trumpeting or bored them to complete extinction and would refuse to be silenced even by eggs of great antiquity lairs ought to stick to society observed his stepbrother flipping around a drawing room and making all the girls think they're equally in the running was more his line he's a nice clean good-looking young fellow at any rate and doesn't look as if he gorged himself hasn't that red-faced stuffed look said dawn if i had a vote i'd give it to him just for that as i'm sick of these red-nosed old members of parliament with corporations here's the real lardy da johnny isn't he laugh door or you would don't you say he's any relation of mine said earnest it would give me away and he thinks i'm in melbourne i told everyone that's where i was bound i hope he won't catch sight of me there was little fear of this one has to be accustomed to facing a crowd before they can distinguish faces after the meeting which dispersed early earnest and i hurried out into the galvanized iron walled yard in which those coming from a distance put their horses and vehicles having noted the disconsolate manner in which a pair of dark eyes below a thatch of generous hue surreptitiously glanced towards a tormentatious maiden with ribbons of blue matching her eyes and fluttering on her bosom i thought it time to come to his rescue if you care to talk to your friend he can drive you home while i walk with dora he says he has something to say to me said dawn in and aside are you sure you want to hear it i asked how could i tell until i hear it that is not a fair answer dawn well it wasn't a fair question she pouted very well i will not press you more but you'll tell me of it after will you not well what would you like me to do she asked oh i'd like you to be naughty mr. dora's complacence inspires me to invagle him into having to drive me home while you walk with someone else very well anything for fun she responded with dancing eyes and as honest had the horse in i got into the sulky and said there is room for three here mr. guid and we would be glad of you to put the horse out when we get home he took the reins and a seat and moved aside to make room for the loitering dawn but she said no i'll walk i must keep carry company and she doesn't want to come just yet drive on i commanded and there was nothing for the entrapped dora to do but obey i saw carry go on with another escort will you permit me to see you to your gate i heard earnest saying as we went and dawn asserting that it was unnecessary it was a beautiful starry night with a prospect of a slight frost as we turned down the treeline streets of the friendly old town whose folk on their home would weigh dawdled in knots to discuss the interposition of the woman's boat now the woman will do strokes said one the men have things in such a jolly muddle it will take a long time to improve them another retorted the women will make bloomin fills of themselves couldn't be worse than the men the woman will all go for this chap because he's good looking just as good a reason is going for another because he shouted grunt for you and similar remarks drifted to my ears but dora's mind did not seem to be running on politics who is that redheaded fellow sitting on the other side of you he inquired which one a short block of a fellow with a clean face oh he's a man i know pretty cool of us leaving dawn the old dame won't like it she won't mind considering dawn has about the most reliable escort procurable i suppose it's all right if you know him but to me he looked like a bag man or bike rider or something in the spieler line oh no and pulling my bow about me i smiled to think of the chagrin of dora he was so beautifully transparent too but to do him justice he did not seem to resent the scurvy trick i had played him as soon as his equanimity was restored and we labored cheerfully but unavailingly to promote a conversation do you really like farming take a pleasure in it i inquired when i'm not in a decent amount of money out of it i do there's not much fun in anything when it doesn't pay quite true there might be a frost tonight but there nothing here always disappear as soon as the sun is up great scott aren't these roads the council wants stuffing in the noon it would be an all right place if only for the roads this brought us to clays gate and no further conversational effort was necessary i lingered outside till eward had disposed of the pony and trap and by that time earnest and dawn bearing evidence of quick walking appeared and we went into grandma and uncle jake in a body the women are going to form a committee to work for mr walker if he's elected announced dawn and i want to join at grandma i'm not old enough to vote but i'd like to work for mr walker he looks worth a vote he's nice and thin and speaks beautifully without shouting and roaring not like these old beer swipers who buy their votes with drink here's a decent looking fellow said eward oh well he'll go in then that's all the women will care about said uncle jake in one of his half audible snares well contended dawn men always sneer at women for doing in a small degree what men do 50 times worse if a pretty barmaid comes to town all the men are after her like bees and if a pretty woman strength of parliament the men would go off their heads about her and yet they get their hair off terribly if a woman happens to prefer a nice gentlemanly man to a big old fat beer barrel with his teeth black from tobacco and his neck gouging over his collar from eating too much can i join the committee grandma if it's proper and he's my man you can and work instead of me but i must hear them both first if walker could get you to make a speech for him we'd all vote for him in a body laughed eward but dawn replied oh you i suppose you say that to every girl eward sizzled in his bushes while earnest face slightly cleared at this rebuff dealt out to another grandma brought in the coffee and grumbled to dawn about carry's absence that larry wittekam ain't no monk and while the girl is in my house i feel i ought to look after her i believe in everyone having liberty there's reason in everything the girl did not appear till after the young men had gone and dawn and i had withdrawn but we heard grandma's remonstrance that fella i told you straight was took up about an affair in a divorce case and it would be as well not to make yourself too cheap to him i don't say as most men ain't as bad only they're not caught and bowled out but when they are made a public example of we have to take notice of it marry him if you want use your own judgment he'll be the sort of fella who'll always have a good home and in after years these things is always forgot and it would be better to be married to a man that had that against him seeing they're all the same only they ain't found out and could keep comfortable than one who was supposed to be different and couldn't keep you but if you ain't going to marry him don't fool about with him and unless he gets to business and wants marriage at once don't take too much notice to his soft soap as you ain't the only girl who's got on the string by a long way he acknowledges about the fault he did in his young days and he says it's terribly hard that it's always coming against him now said carry well if a woman does a fault she has to pay for it hasn't she that's the order of things said grandma but this was when he was young and foolish continued carry yes the poor child he was terribly innocent wasn't he and was got hold of by some fierce designing hussey they always are and it was all her fault it always is a woman's fault only for the women the men would be all angels and for a long ago said grandma sarcastically i'll give you plenty of that kind of yarn if you listen to him and if you were built so you can believe it well and good but the facts was always too much of an eye opener for me and with that the contention ended yes carries the terribleest silly about that larry wittgen said dawn she swallows all he says she said to me yesterday he seems to be terribly gone on me yes i said you keep cool about his goneness wait till he gets down on his knees and bellows and roars about his love and take my tip for it he could forget you then in less than a week i've seen men pretending to be mad with love and the next month married to someone else men's love is a thing you want to take with more discount than everything you know you might be conceited enough to believe them if you went by your own lovers but you want to look on at other people's love affairs and see how much is to be depended on there and measure your own by them and it will keep your head cool said this girl who had the most sensible head i ever saw in conjunction with her degree of beauty she had contracted the habit of slipping into my room for a talk before going to bed and as her bright presence there was a delight to me i encouraged her in it the gorgeous kimono was a great attraction she loved it so that i had given it her after the first night but did not tell her so or she would have carried it away to her own room where i would have been deprived of the pleasure of seeing it nightly enhance the loveliness of her firm white throat and arms how did you and dora get on together she presently inquired well you see we didn't allow how did you and earnest manage well you see we didn't allow she laughed no but you might have arranged such a thing arranged for such a thing she said scornfully i am not in the habit of trucking with other people's belongings what do you mean who is you who said something about his young lady this afternoon as far as i can see he doesn't behave much as if he had one so it was my chance remark that had run her wheel out of groove during the last few hours does he not i replied i think he appears more as though he has a young lady now than he did during my previous knowledge of him well i don't know how you see it she said as she tore down her pretty hair what i ejaculated in fame consternation he has not been making love to you has he dawned i always had such faith in his manliness well he doesn't say anything said dawn with a blush but he glares at me in the way men do and when i mention anything i like or want he wants to get it for me and all that sort of business perhaps he's falling in love unawares young men are often stupid and do not recognize their distemper till it is very ripe he ought to be removed from danger well if i ever had a lover and he liked another girl better i'd be pretty sure he hadn't cared for me and would not want him any more she said offhandedly but would it not be better to let him go away and be happy with the maid who loves him and just spoil his life by wasting his affection on you when you only think him a great pug looking creature that you'd be ashamed to be seen with yes i don't care for him she said still more offhandedly but he doesn't look so clear now that i've got used to him i suppose anyone who liked him wouldn't think him such a horror no i for one think him handsome handsome yes handsome well i'll go to bed after that and think how some people's tests differ well take care that you don't think about earnest thank you i don't want the nightmare she retorted tossing her head end of chapter 12