"Excitable people," he murmured. "Excitable people." It made him happy to see them. God mu§t love those who greet mere absenteeš with so much ardour. It was as if the bov had come back from the dead. Mr Neville wondered if, this once, he might get a senďblq explicit enswer from a black. He wďked down the path and out onto the dusty grass of the mission station. "Jimmie Blacksmith!" he called. His voice cut the shrilling off. When Jimmie broke off his path and came towards the missioner, his brother Morton štaggered about with the hilariry of it. But there was silence. Jimmie's feet could be heard padding the earth in their light economic way. "'Where ha-ve you been, Master Blacksmith?" "Catchin' Dossums." Mr Nevill'e flinched. "I cen't understand you. Didn't it occur to you you might be needed for higher things? The Easter choir perhapsl" "How d'yérmean, Mr Neville?" "You've inissea a lot of school." "Yair, Mr Neville." "Very well. You must coíne to my snrdy, please." In thé s$dy, a front sitting-room dignifiečl bý desk, an orbis terraťum, thr-ee shelves of standard evangelical works, Jimmic was caned for truancy. No one resented it. No one had hindered Mungindi eldeň from gathering to make Jimmie e qen. Though théy_ had come from plc§ spr9ld over more than two thousaňd squares miles to initiaté him, it would have seemed no unworthy usage that their new buck should now be lashed on the "rr'" Uv "a Methodist minister. For the truth of Mr Neville and the inrth of Emu-Wren ran parallel. Mr Neville had his place, as did the poor-bugger-whiře-fella-son- of-God-got-nailed. "Caneleach yer to be good feller now," Wilf stated. "Don' let that stand in yer light." 2 IMME, who had come home from his with tribal manhood, began-durin years, by H: o*9 insight and under t encc-to question its valuc. What did Tullam and Mungara stand fot were beggars puking Hunter River rotgut of hotel shit-houses. Tribal elders, whó c teeth and knew where the soul-stones of ee den and how the stones could be distinzuis wives to white men for a suck from a biant Mr and Mrs Neville spoke to Jimmie of , tribal. "If you could ever find a nice girl off your children would only be quafter-cast grandchildren one-eighth caste, šcarcely bl Most men who weren't old men had becr cal of the uibal cosmogony, even if they . headed about it as Jimmie. The very héig hood for some w:§ this gulping of cňeap i That activity itself was a tomried questing picture for iÝIungindi man. The counuy police did not take that vi In thc spring of tgg+ the Rev. Mr Nevillt 7 Black f eller kin eat, Black f ellet kin drink. Black f eller can't do both And drinkin's happin. Woneee Tom was sleeping ofi his happiness but had one "y" ooŮo. friends, such as Jimmie. His čheeks folded theméIues strangely into creeses of apparent contentment, "Hev. vei pilev bastard!" he murmured. "Heí. Woirné Tom." "YaÚ, that's"who. How's that old sow Dulcig goin'l" "Dulóie's good. Wilf's drunk." It was a_ sďe enough p.,_": diction. "Dofoe's good, Mort's bloody good. Are you good?" "Yeir, not worřin' much." He chuCkled at tris ow1 i9ke, They cóuld get very superior, these travelled blacks who had seen the larse towns. "Are theře other Emu-Wren here?" Jimmie asked in MunO'}$*"-*.en?" 'Wongee Tom mocked. "Bullshit," But he ,"u" in to the old bnlzuage. "I've come a big walk from Brent*ood, walking ail řheiay. Ll_ardly_a blackman to offer Á. " i"U ot ni, wře. No Emu-Wren. I don't know why I teft the plains. The crayfish here are good, Nice red meat"' 'iYou got a iob?" Jimmie. ryked. In English, for in Munsindi theře was no word íorjob. "- t ""t"t 'em Dossums. Seli'em skin. Thrippence e skin, Not much. Wish I'had a gun. Whitefeller dóďt like Wongee h"nsir' round homesteid catchin' possuíns, You buggn off, btařPiet Thrippence a skin,,that's all." ---'ions timť since yer skinned yer last po§um," Jimmie Blacksrňith teased him. ''Like hell. ver paley bastard!" Then Wongee Tom gave in and laughód ooťhis "dmissions. "Don, know when last one was. Possum meet screwny, full of bones, Wongee rather oinch bacon." '-iňň-Úh"k men sat, watching a farmer's familn who had crossed the pavement to the draper's door, -- From wiitrin ceíne the gurgli of the store-owner welcom_ il-;;;. The mothe.""rrá three girls passed both black mEn without a glance. All of these were sucking wtth 8 vary_ 10 ing degree of blatanry and.a halí.-pound,b was s€cure in the posses$on ot the elo voungest. perhaps fóur, blue-eyed beneat Í"ti"f; was prinied H.M.S. Sugar and Sp door to loot fuil at'Wongee Tom. Alre knew that she must take whatever chanc ceíne to her, since her mother would so< to observe such people only obliqueln in litde for one's knówledge. 'Wongee smiled at hěr tolerantly. "Yer t*.nty-v"rrs' time, plant them blue eyes 'rnéntUe siílducŘed away from the pI draper's gloň, where her mother wi§ tes x souere ot serge. 'bughtn't sáy that sort of thing, Won name." H.M.S. Sugar and Spice dashed past the the store, the tough square mother bouncl next shoppins task. "Worili vóu [ke a white \iloman, Won1 smith asked Wongee-since Mrs Neville oossibiliw for him. ' "Dorr'i seem ter make the cow-cocl white woman for 'is wife. Why else hl girls? Must be sum'pin to white women r " Th.y went on sitting and spoke of c Iimmié next sa\ll the family of girls, the -" n.* spirit heater; and hei mother, aII at the vounser ones to partake of the con the ÉissÉercarried half open be.side the h lim"mie Blacksrnith fell in love with tht deíav. He wanted her homesomeness, the famív securiry; the way she carried and consóiouslv bóuntiful, the barley-srgar, t And wilh love, ambitiors! The sort l him to have, landowning ambitions, amb for bonding one's worď and sticking to finished. The Eirl went by in sturdy clothes brown ďurt on her strenuously buffed bo, l1 í3to Jimmie. Jimmie would not take it, but backed away. "Fair go, boss," he said. "I'm geťtin' married." The man blew tobacco smbke with his bottom lip, up through his tarnished ginger moustache. He picked up three more notes. "Ten bob a week, boss. Say yer will!" "Yer fuckin' relativcs only drink it." "No, boss. I'm marryin'. ÝVhite girl." "What white girl?" "Missus Flayes' girl, boss." "Did yer git her in the family way?" "What, bcrs?" "Yer sow a piccalrinny in her?" "Yař. She's'nice girl. but of a home." "I wouidn't boast about the white girl if I was you." He snatched up ťwo more notes, in token_ of the_hopelessness of Jimmie's "marriage with the nice girl out of a home, and as iř he felt he muŠtchoose betv,eeň paying some debt now rather than latcr. "Bugger orf, Jimmie," he said. "While yore lucky." The Hayeses' maicl said she respected him. Helped to it, of course, beóause she carried lris child. She was very young and her legs were freckled, Yet- Jimmie had seen in her a chance of white marriage very so-on aftcr their first meeting, or at least very soon after thai sabbatlr incidcnt on the riverbank. Even then he had observed her. She \l,as very stupid. For examp}e. j\{rs tláves-had shown her-out of ]!írs Beeton's illuJrraieci book " how table should be set and how dinner should be served. Yet Gilda was all the time in a panic of forgetting it ail. lf you spied _on the_ Hayeses' dining-room of an Čvenin-g y.ru.uouid see Mrs_Hayes's vigilance,.i\ír Hayes's resentment Óťnot serving himself, and you could hear Gilda's hisses and snufilings as -she scuttered -about the room with tureens and salverŠand the potatoes went cold. It was then that you understood her sniíi conveyed no shred of superio_r pride. She had bad sinuses, and a térror of being sent back io the home ťor thc way,ward. Nor was she Mrs Healy. But a start had to be made lomewhere with white women. And Jimrnie coulrl not help thinking that under coming successes she might be converted Mrs Healy, Jimmie'Rlacksmitlr w3s to frnd them a , she was to ica,.,e the Hayeses' service and jc one nronth later he'was settler with a for a mln ca!led Ncr.rby who ov,ned 7,000 He could cttť vrood tróm the Newbys' prc split-timber one-room home for his bride. F T'he fifry-tivo-year-old f,ermero leaning b of his shovel-shaped beard and irony of h eyes, seemed to spend a considerable time , the tirae he siickecl a pebble to keep his mc As if they had all conspired, Mr Newb Le,wis--secmed to irave made a sport out of . Blacksmith to behave in what he woulc character. 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