The Drover's Brother Comes for Christmas by Darry Fraser

Author:Darry Fraser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Published: 2023-08-20T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Ellery poked his head in the front door. ‘G’day, Uncle Mack.’ His dark hair was windblown and his face dirty with grit and streaks of sweat.

Mack gave him a nod. ‘You walk all the way over?’ He dumped the spuds and onions into a timber box by the kitchen bench and hoped Shep had left a cooking pot. He spied one hanging at the end of the mantel.

‘It’s not that far,’ Ellery said. ‘When we used to live here, we’d visit Mrs Wickley—um, before—’ The boy stopped.

Mack could guess what he’d been about to say. He didn’t press. ‘I used to live here too, long time ago.’

‘Yeah?’

‘Me, and your pa and our other brother, Keegan. Our own ma and pa were here in those days, too.’ Mack leaned in the doorway, folded his arms and looked out across the yard to where the family graves were. He tilted his head, looked back inside the house and pointed to a spot high on the far wall where a wide ledge had been secured. ‘Back then, ma and pa slept up on that shelf. Us boys all slept in that room right there.’ That was where he’d sleep now he was back. ‘Then they built that room at the end for themselves when we’d grown a bit.’

Ellery stepped inside. ‘Did you know me … before?’

‘I did. A real bright little fella you were.’ Mack followed him.

‘You older than my pa?’ Ellery had stood by a chair.

‘By a couple of years.’

‘Like George an’ me, then.’ Mack nodded at him. ‘Why’d you leave?’ Ellery asked.

Mack had known it was coming, one way or the other. ‘Hasn’t your pa told you?’

Ellery shrugged. ‘He thinks I’m still a kid. You know he won’t let me leave school like me mates have.’

‘Might be a good reason for that.’ Mack pulled open a tightly lidded tin and rummaged, hoping for a packet of tea leaves. Nothing but little books of brittle matches.

‘Yeah, but he needs me to work on the farm.’

‘I can see that you want to.’ Mack glanced at his nephew. ‘Can you read and write well enough?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Well, I’ll have a word to him then. We could all work together on the two places.’

Ellery’s eyes narrowed. ‘Maybe.’

Mack wondered about Shep keeping Ellery at school. Mack and his brothers were all taken out of the classroom as soon as their three Rs were better than just rudimentary. Perhaps it was Shep’s new wife who wanted the boy to stay at school.

‘You know, I went on to a big town and tried to get myself a better education,’ Mack said. No tea in the tin, and no sugar anywhere either. Damn. For those things at least, he’d have to go back to Munyup.

And see Mrs Naylor.

‘Why? You woulda had this farm.’

Smiling at that, Mack answered. ‘I wanted to write.’

‘For a newspaper?’

‘Not journalism, no. I wanted to write stories.’

Ellery shook his head at that, didn’t understand.

‘To entertain,’ Mack said. ‘To impart the wonder of the world. To make people laugh, or cry, or take adventures while they sat in their armchairs.

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