girls ran off giggling. They gettin' ready to start singin' and dancin' to kep you company. Tha's altogether the way Miss Sheila was — '
`Yes, I know her quite well.' Jeckie nodded her head.
She did indeed know her cousin Sheila very well. Sheila was bright and very social - that was true. But -
Oh wen, Jeckie thought. Perhaps I'm wrong -and Sheila is less selfish and much nicer than I have thought. Anyone with those all-seing diagnostic eyes of Andrew would never be taken in. Girls weren't always the best judges of other girls: especially when they happened to be cousins. Well - distant cousins, anyway.
Jeckie was so wrapped up in these thoughts she hardly noticed she had said goodbye to Cassie and the dough-board, and was following Jane to the large back veranda.
'This is where the staff have their meals,' Jane was saying. 'Isn't it lovely with those green creeper-covered walls? And look at the scarlet bougainvillma along the yard fence! We wouldn't have all that greenery, and those lovely trees, if the homestead hadn't been placed by a water hole.'
It's like an oasis in a desert,' Jeckie said with a touch of wonder as she took in the colourful world of bougainvilla, tall whitetrunked gum trees with their pale down-pointing green leaves, the oleanders and the green lawns and shrubbery. `So rich and beautiful, isn't it? Then way out there, there's nothing but spinifex. Miles and miles and miles of spinifex. I could see it all last night, but only by moonlight. It was like a wasteland. So lonely and deserted too.'
'Once people live long enough in the outback they become addicted to it,' Jane said. 'If they go away they're never really happy till they come back to it. It has its surprises for one thing. You'll learn all about them from Barton.'
'Our farm down in the south west is so rich and green looking. Out there is like a different world ..
`Don't make up your mind too quickly against it, Jeckie. I hope you'll stay long enough to love it. The land, I mean. 'This station is the cradle of your people, as it is of mine.'
'Yes, I know.' Jeckie was thoughtful. 'Great-Great-Grandfather Andrew came from England as a very young man, didn't he? He was a surveyor and made these wonderful exploration trips into the outback with a camel train and the help of friendly Aborigines- '
There was a note in her voice as if wonder had crept into it. Not only for the first time but unexpectedly too. It boggled her imagination to think of what her great-great-grandfather had done. Come across this terrible plain, never knowing if they'd strike water again. So many of the early explorers had died of thirst out here in the outback. Why had she never thought of Mallibee this way before?
Jane gave her arm a gentle tap.
`So you see, Jeckie, we don't laugh when Miss Isobel speaks of him as "Andrew the First". He really was the First, you know. The first white man ever to travel into these regions, and see them in their natural wild state.'
`No. I won't laugh,' Jeckie said. 'But I didn't laugh out loud, did I? Yet you know I was, well, sort-of sceptical?'
'Everyone has a little laugh about the way Miss Isobel speaks of her grandfather — your great-great-grandfather. She remembers him, of course, and she's a very elderly lady now. But she has never left Mallibee — except when she went to school. It is her domain. She guards it, as well as loves it. All she needs now is to see Andrew and Barton happily settled and —' she broke off.
Jeckie realized Jane was reading her a kindly lecture for her own sake, as well as for Aunt Isobel's sake. Yet here again she could hear the faint echo of those family discussions down south. Isobel is writing all round the family relations. She's anxious to patch up old quarrels. She thinks perhaps the younger generation — girls like Jeckie and Sheila — should make an effort. Something might come of it. There are two very eligible bachelors up there— and they'd be only second cousins. Or
`Yes, I know her quite well.' Jeckie nodded her head.
She did indeed know her cousin Sheila very well. Sheila was bright and very social - that was true. But -
Oh wen, Jeckie thought. Perhaps I'm wrong -and Sheila is less selfish and much nicer than I have thought. Anyone with those all-seing diagnostic eyes of Andrew would never be taken in. Girls weren't always the best judges of other girls: especially when they happened to be cousins. Well - distant cousins, anyway.
Jeckie was so wrapped up in these thoughts she hardly noticed she had said goodbye to Cassie and the dough-board, and was following Jane to the large back veranda.
'This is where the staff have their meals,' Jane was saying. 'Isn't it lovely with those green creeper-covered walls? And look at the scarlet bougainvillma along the yard fence! We wouldn't have all that greenery, and those lovely trees, if the homestead hadn't been placed by a water hole.'
It's like an oasis in a desert,' Jeckie said with a touch of wonder as she took in the colourful world of bougainvilla, tall whitetrunked gum trees with their pale down-pointing green leaves, the oleanders and the green lawns and shrubbery. `So rich and beautiful, isn't it? Then way out there, there's nothing but spinifex. Miles and miles and miles of spinifex. I could see it all last night, but only by moonlight. It was like a wasteland. So lonely and deserted too.'
'Once people live long enough in the outback they become addicted to it,' Jane said. 'If they go away they're never really happy till they come back to it. It has its surprises for one thing. You'll learn all about them from Barton.'
'Our farm down in the south west is so rich and green looking. Out there is like a different world ..
`Don't make up your mind too quickly against it, Jeckie. I hope you'll stay long enough to love it. The land, I mean. 'This station is the cradle of your people, as it is of mine.'
'Yes, I know.' Jeckie was thoughtful. 'Great-Great-Grandfather Andrew came from England as a very young man, didn't he? He was a surveyor and made these wonderful exploration trips into the outback with a camel train and the help of friendly Aborigines- '
There was a note in her voice as if wonder had crept into it. Not only for the first time but unexpectedly too. It boggled her imagination to think of what her great-great-grandfather had done. Come across this terrible plain, never knowing if they'd strike water again. So many of the early explorers had died of thirst out here in the outback. Why had she never thought of Mallibee this way before?
Jane gave her arm a gentle tap.
`So you see, Jeckie, we don't laugh when Miss Isobel speaks of him as "Andrew the First". He really was the First, you know. The first white man ever to travel into these regions, and see them in their natural wild state.'
`No. I won't laugh,' Jeckie said. 'But I didn't laugh out loud, did I? Yet you know I was, well, sort-of sceptical?'
'Everyone has a little laugh about the way Miss Isobel speaks of her grandfather — your great-great-grandfather. She remembers him, of course, and she's a very elderly lady now. But she has never left Mallibee — except when she went to school. It is her domain. She guards it, as well as loves it. All she needs now is to see Andrew and Barton happily settled and —' she broke off.
Jeckie realized Jane was reading her a kindly lecture for her own sake, as well as for Aunt Isobel's sake. Yet here again she could hear the faint echo of those family discussions down south. Isobel is writing all round the family relations. She's anxious to patch up old quarrels. She thinks perhaps the younger generation — girls like Jeckie and Sheila — should make an effort. Something might come of it. There are two very eligible bachelors up there— and they'd be only second cousins. Or
Similar Books
