The Penguin Henry Lawson Short Stories

by Henry Lawson

  Suddenly the mother called out:

  ‘Can’t you be quiet? What do you mean by talking at this hour of the night? Am I never to get another wink of sleep? Shut those doors, Nils, for God’s sake, if you don’t want to drive me mad – and make that boy hold his tongue!’

  The father closed the doors.

  ‘Better try to go to sleep now, sonny,’ he whispered, as he lay down again.

  The father waited for some time, then, moving very softly, he lit the candle at the kitchen fire, put it where it shouldn’t light the boy’s face, and watched him. And the child knew he was watching him, and pretended to sleep, and, so pretending, he slept. And the old year died as many old years had died.

  The father was up at about four o’clock – he worked at his trade in a farming town about five miles away, and was struggling to make a farm and a home between jobs. He cooked bacon for breakfast, washed up the dishes and tidied the kitchen, gave the boys some bread and bacon fat, of which they were very fond, and told the eldest to take a cup of tea and some bread and milk to his mother and the baby when they woke.

  The boy milked the three cows, set the milk, and heard his mother calling:

  ‘Nils! Nils!’

  ‘Yes, mother.’

  ‘Why didn’t you answer when I called you? I’ve been calling here for the last three hours. Is your father gone out?’

  ‘Yes, mother.’

  ‘Thank God! It’s a relief to be rid of his everlasting growling. Bring me a cup of tea and the Australian Journal, and take this child and dress her; she should have been up hours ago.’

  And so the New Year began.

  NOTES AND SOURCES

  IN the following notes, the details of the first publication of each story are listed, together with the source of the text used in this volume. Some of the stories were revised for book publication, and substantial changes have been noted. Interesting information on Lawson’s texts is to be found in Colin Roderick, Henry Lawson: Commentaries on his Prose Writings, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1984. The editions from which the stories in The Penguin Lawson come are:

  While the Billy Boils, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1896.

  On the Track, Sydney, Angus and Robertson, 1900.

  The Country I Come From, Edinburgh and London, Blackwood, 1901.

  Joe Wilson and His Mates, Edinburgh and London, Blackwood, 1901.

  Triangles of Life, Melbourne, Standard Publishing Company, 1913.

  Small errors in the original texts have been corrected, and a few minor changes have been made in spelling, punctuation and capitalisation, but Lawson’s use of an initial capital for ‘bush’ in stories written from 1900 on has been preserved.

  Lawson’s Complete Works, in two volumes compiled and edited by Leonard Cronin, were published in Sydney by Lansdowne in 1984. The Memorial Edition of Lawson’s writing, seven volumes edited by Colin Roderick, was published in Sydney by Angus and Robertson (1967–1972).

  The Drover’s Wife First published: Bulletin, 23 July 1892. Source: The Country I Come From.

  The Bush Undertaker First published: The Antipodean, 1892, under the title, ‘Christmas in the Far West; or, The Bush Undertaker’. Colin Roderick, who discusses the textual changes made by Lawson and his editors in subsequent reprintings, points out that in the original the grave which the old man digs up is described as ‘the supposed blackfellow’s grave, about which the old man had some doubts’ (see his Henry Lawson: Commentaries on his Prose Writings, p. 27). Source: The Country I Come From.

  In a Dry Season First published: Bulletin, 5 November 1892. Lawson had gone ‘out back’ to Bourke, which was the rail terminus for northwestern New South Wales, in September 1892, and was working as a house-painter and station rouseabout in the district when he wrote this account of the journey. Roderick gives details of editorial emendations by Lawson. Source: While the Billy Boils.

  The Union Buries Its Dead First published: Truth, 16 April 1893, under the title, ‘A Bushman’s Funeral: A Sketch from Life’. In 1902 Lawson wrote: ‘ “The Union Buries Its Dead” is simply an unornimented (sic) description of a funeral I took part in Bourk (sic) N.S.W. – it is true in every detail – even to the paragraph re the drowning of a man named Tyson having appeared in a Sydney Daily.’ (Letter to Edward Garnett, ‘27th (or 28th) Feb 1902’). William Wood, writing from Paraguay in 1931, recalled knowing Lawson during his stay in Bourke: ‘I was present, with other Union officials, at the funeral described by Henry in “The Union Buries its Dead” and still remember many of the incidents which he so humorously described … The cemetery was a good step from town and many of the mourners developed a strong thirst long before the first pub. was met on the way back.’ (‘To the Memory of Henry Lawson’, MS note, Mitchell Library.) James Tyson (1819–1898), a squatter, was reputed to be the wealthiest and meanest man in the whole continent. Source: The Country I Come From.

  Hungerford First published: Bulletin, 16 December 1893. Lawson’s tramp – 140 miles – from Bourke to Hungerford on the Queensland border left him ‘a beaten man’. In ‘this God-forgotten town’ he resolved to walk back to Bourke, and somehow to return to Sydney ‘never to face the bush again’ (quotations are from a letter to his aunt, Emma Brooks, 16 January 1893). In the naming of the old man, Bulletin readers would have recognised the allusion to Paterson’s ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ and would have recalled the verse controversy between Lawson and Paterson in the journal the previous year (see Lawson’s ‘Up the Country’ and ‘The City Bushman’, and Paterson’s ‘In Defence of the Bush’). Source: While the Billy Boils.

  ‘Rats’ First published: Bulletin, 3 June 1893. The story was included in Lawson’s first book, Short Stories in Prose and Verse, 1894, with an additional final paragraph (subsequently deleted in While the Billy Boils and later reprintings):

  And late that evening a little withered old man with no corks round his hat and with a humorous twinkle instead of a wild glare in his eyes called at a wayside shanty, had several drinks, and entertained the chaps with a yarn about the way in which he had ‘had’ three ‘blanky fellows’ for some tucker and ‘half a caser’ by pretending to be ‘barmy’.

  Source: While the Billy Boils.

  An Old Mate of Your Father’s First published: Worker, 24 June 1893. Colin Roderick has drawn attention to the phrase, ‘Fifty-Niners’, which he considers to be a typesetter’s error. In the original periodical version the text read, ‘These two old “50” miners’, the allusion apparently being to 1850, the year before the gold rush began in New South Wales. Source: The Country I Come From.

  Mitchell: A Character Sketch First published: Bulletin, 15 April 1893. Source: While the Billy Boils.

  On the Edge of a Plain First published: Bulletin, 6 May 1893. Source: While the Billy Boils.

  ‘Some Day’ First published: Worker, 22 July 1893, under the title ‘A Swagman’s Love Story’. As Colin Roderick has pointed out, in the version of the story originally published the character was called ‘Marsters’. Source: While the Billy Boils.

  Our Pipes First published: Bulletin, 11 May 1895. Source: While the Billy Boils.

  Bill the Ventriloquial Rooster First published: Bulletin, 22 October 1898. In Section IV of his ‘A Fragment of Autobiography’ (written 1903–6) Lawson describes the actual events from his childhood on which the yarn is based. Source: On the Track.

  The Geological Spieler First published and source: While the Billy Boils. According to Lawson, Steelman was a New Zealander, a ‘commercial traveller’ whose family were unaware that he was a confidence man. Lawson worked for a time as a labourer in a gang on a telegraph line in the South Island of New Zealand, during a seven-month stay extending from November 1893 to July 1894. The first Steelman story appeared in the Bulletin, 19 January 1895.

  The Iron-bark Chip First published and source: On the Track. Roderick points out that in Lawson’s manuscript there was a further sentence at the end of the story: ‘But when the rain held they went to work with easy co
nsciences – as comfortable as if the inspector had taken the chip’.

  The Loaded Dog First published and source: Joe Wilson and His Mates.

  Brighten’s Sister-in-law First published: Blackwood’s Magazine, November 1900. When originally published, the story lacked the last two paragraphs of the version printed here: they are a slightly edited version of a passage that was part of ‘Past Carin’’ when it was published in Blackwood’s Magazine six months later, and were apparently intended to strengthen the impression of a Joe Wilson series in the periodical. The revision was made when Lawson prepared the stories for book publication. The basic situation of the story was used by Lawson in a ballad, ‘Brighten’s Sister-in-law: or, The Carrier’s Story’ which was published in the Town and Country Journal, 21 December 1889. Source: Joe Wilson and His Mates.

  A Double Buggy at Lahey’s Creek First published: Blackwood’s Magazine, February 1901. Source: Joe Wilson and His Mates.

  ‘Water Them Geraniums’ First published: Joe Wilson and His Mates (‘Past Carin’’ had been published separately in Blackwood’s Magazine, May 1901). A poem by Lawson, entitled ‘Past Carin’’, appeared in the Australian Magazine, 30 May 1899. Source: Joe Wilson and His Mates.

  Joe Wilson’s Courtship First published and source: Joe Wilson and His Mates. This Joe Wilson story was written later than the others, but when they were collected in book form they were printed in the following order: ‘Joe Wilson’s Courtship’, ‘Brighten’s Sister-in-law’, ‘“Water Them Geraniums”’, ‘A Double Buggy at Lahey’s Creek’. After the fourth story the following note was added:

  THE WRITER WANTS TO SAY A WORD

  In writing the first sketch of the Joe Wilson series, which happened to be ‘Brighten’s Sister-in-law’, I had an idea of making Joe Wilson a strong character. Whether he is or not, the reader must judge. It seems to me that the man’s natural sentimental selfishness, good-nature, ‘softness’, or weakness – call it which you like – developed as I wrote on.

  I know Joe Wilson very well. He has been through deep trouble since the day he brought the double buggy to Lahey’s Creek. I met him in Sydney the other day. Tall and straight yet – rather straighter than he had been – dressed in a comfortable, serviceable sac suit of ‘saddle-tweed’, and wearing a new sugar-loaf, cabbage-tree hat, he looked over the hurrying street people calmly as though they were sheep of which he was not in charge, and which were not likely to get ‘boxed’ with his. Not the worst way in which to regard the world.

  He talked deliberately and quietly in all that roar and rush. He is a young man yet, comparatively speaking, but it would take little Mary a long while now to pick the grey hairs out of his head, and the process would leave him pretty bald.

  In two or three short sketches in another book I hope to complete the story of his life.

  Source: Joe Wilson and His Mates.

  Telling Mrs Baker First published: Blackwood’s Magazine, October 1901. Source: Joe Wilson and His Mates.

  A Child in the Dark, and a Foreign Father First published: Bulletin, 13 December 1902, under the title, ‘A Child in the Dark: A Bush Sketch’. The story was begun in England as a novel, but was broken off and eventually completed after Lawson’s return to Australia. Ardath was a novel published in 1889 by Marie Corelli, a popular English writer of escapist fiction. Source: Triangles of Life.

  GLOSSARY

  billabong: a waterhole in the bed of a river or creek which flows only after heavy rain.

  black-tracker: an Aboriginal working for the police as a tracker.

  blucher boots: short boots (half the height of Wellington boots), named after the Prussian field marshal who fought Napoleon at Waterloo.

  bluey: bundle carried by a swagman; that is, a swag (possibly so-called because of the blue blanket commonly carried).

  bow-yangs: string tied round each trouser leg below the knee, to adjust the length.

  brammer: colloquial form of ‘Brahma’ (from the name of the river Brahmaputra), a breed of domestic fowl from India.

  cabbage-tree hat: a wide-brimmed hat woven from narrow strips of the leaves of the cabbage palm tree, which grows along the eastern coast of Australia (the ‘sugar-loaf’ version had a very high crown).

  cotton-bush: an indigenous, drought-resistant, perennial shrub, which grows in a compact shape up to one metre high and wide; its name derives from the white cotton-like growths on its spring branchlets, caused by the action of small grubs.

  Crimean shirt: shirt of red or spotted or striped flannel (presumably so-called because worn in the Crimean War).

  duffer: in mining slang, a mine that proves worthless.

  goanna: large Australian monitor lizard (sometimes confused with iguana, which refers to the South American arboreal lizard).

  graft: work (in a footnote for English readers of Joe Wilson and His Mates, Lawson wrote: ‘The term is now applied, in Australia, to all sorts of work, from bullock-driving to writing poetry’).

  hatter: a person who prefers to be solitary and appears to be eccentric, if not actually crazy.

  humpy: a very primitive hut.

  jackeroo: a young man gaining experience on a sheep or cattle property.

  jim jams (‘the jams’): slang for delirium tremens, a state of delusion and terror caused by excessive drinking.

  johnny cakes: small flat cakes, made from flour and water, cooked on both sides in the ashes of a camp fire.

  larrikin: a hooligan; a rowdy, ill-mannered youth.

  lignum: an indigenous perennial shrub, with rigid tangled branches.

  lush: (as a verb) to drink alcohol excessively.

  Maoriland: New Zealand.

  masher: smart, dandified.

  moleskin: hard-wearing cotton twill, of which working trousers were made.

  mulga: wattles (acacias) found in drier areas.

  native apple-trees: indigenous trees, supposed to resemble English apple trees; usually applied to angophoras.

  Never-Never: country far from the centres of civilisation.

  on the track: tramping the country as a swagman.

  on the wallaby: the same meaning as ‘on the track’ (the phrase perhaps suggested by the notion of following the wallaby’s track).

  Out-Back: a phrase, well established by the time Lawson started writing, to designate the sparsely settled poor country inland from the fertile coastal plain of Eastern Australia (‘ “Out Back” is always west of the Bushman, no matter how far out he be’ – Lawson, footnote to Joe Wilson and His Mates).

  payable dirt: mining slang for ore-bearing rock or gravel.

  post-and-rail tea: cheap tea, which was very coarse, so that stalks and leaves floated on top when it was made in a billy.

  ring-barked: descriptive of a tree from which a circle of bark has been cut away, causing it to die.

  Royal Alfred: a large, rolled swag, ‘with tent and all complete, and weighing part of a ton.’ (Lawson, ‘The Romance of the Swag’)

  run: a term used to describe a piece of land worked by a squatter; a synonym for station.

  sandy blight: the common phrase to describe inflammation of the eye, which produced the sensation of sand in the eye-lid.

  selection: a small land holding, created by the various colonial Selection Acts of the 1860s which attempted to promote closer settlement.

  shanty: a place where alcoholic drink was sold, usually without licence.

  she-oak: not the English oak, but the indigenous casuarina, which has long needle-like leaves.

  shooting the moon: leaving at night to avoid paying.

  sly grog: liquor sold illegally.

  spieler: a glib talker or confidence-man.

  squatter: a large landholder.

  station: a large landholding used for grazing sheep or cattle.

  sundowner: a tramp – that is, a professional swagman – who organises his arrival at a homestead to coincide with the going down of the sun, so that he cannot be asked to do any work for a handout.

&nb
sp; swag: bundle carried on his back by a traveller on foot, ‘usually composed of a tent “fly” or strip of calico (a cover for the swag and a shelter in bad weather – in New Zealand it is oilcloth or water-proof twill), a couple of blankets, blue by custom and preference, as that colour shows the dirt less than any other (hence the name “bluey” for swag), and the core is composed of spare clothing and small personal effects’. (Lawson, ‘The Romance of the Swag’)

  swagman: a man, with his belongings in a ‘swag’, tramping the country, ostensibly but not necessarily looking for work.

  tucker-bag: any bag used for carrying food.

  up the country: inland, away from the coast and the centres of population.

  whare: Maori word for ‘hut’.