while the billy boils
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biography of a book: henry lawson' s while the billy boils / paul eggert .
the revision and copy - editing of while the billy boils: lawson and arthur w. jose
biography of a book: henry lawson' s while the billy boils / ​ paul eggert .
australian literary criticism and scholarly editing from the 1980s: while the billy boils as cross - section .
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biography of a book: henry lawson' s while the billy boils / paul eggert. - version details - trove
as the billy boils: david best and amanda o' regan dole out the tea leaves .
tue 25 oct 1921 - the register (adelaide, sa: 1901 - 1929) page 5 -
while the billy boils .
mon 2 oct 1916 - the sydney morning herald (nsw: 1842 - 1954) page 4 -
while the billy boils .
the register (adelaide, sa: 1901 - 1929), tue 25 oct 1921, page 5 -
while the billy boils .
the sydney morning herald (nsw: 1842 - 1954), mon 2 oct 1916, page 4 -
while the billy boils .
to undertake a detailed examination of one of lawson’s stories from while the billy boils (‘the drover’s wife’) undertake a this close reading exercise .
lawson, h. while the billy boils: the original newspaper version. edited by paul eggert, notes by elizabeth webby, sydney university press 2013 .
biography of a book: henry lawson' s while the billy boils / while the billy boils: the original newspaper versions
by pierce, peter - journal of the association for the study of australian literature: jasal, vol. 13, issue 3, september 1, 2013 | online research library: questia
abstract the oast secured for the beaumont smith production ,
white the billy boils ,
embraces some of the best known of aus­tralian performers. after having created
while the billy boils (first published in 1896) is lawson’s best - known collection of prose writing, predominantly consisting of short stories and sketches that were originally published in newspapers and periodicals such as the bulletin .
biography of a book: henry lawson' s while the billy boils, by paul eggert. new south wales: sydney university press, 2013, 428 pp. isbn: 9781743320129 (pbk) $ aud 35. 00 urltoken
' biography of a book' traces the life of an iconic australian literacy work in the lead - up to, and for a century after, its initial publication: henry lawson' s 1896 collection' while the billy boils' .
collected by warren fahey from cyril duncan (source: 1 - cassette collection of abc radio programs: while the billy boils, a panorama of australian folklore, devised and scripted by warren fahey, australian broadcasting commission, 1981. [ isbn 0 6442 975817 ]
although this section refers closely to only four of the stories, the wiki activity in the initial response section should have extended students’ knowledge of the stories and encouraged them to read more so they are able to gain an understanding of lawson’s predominant themes and attitudes. while students read other stories and sketches from while the billy boils, they could consider the following questions .
lizzie hadn’t smiled, not once; she watched him gravely all the while .
[ this is a transcription of the major handwritten addition to the clipping of
hungerford
. for a fuller recording of the stages of correction and revision, and for further explanation, see the scholarly edition ‘while the billy boils: the original newspaper versions’, ed. paul eggert (2012). ]
while the billy boils: the original newspaper versions, ed. paul eggert with explanatory notes by elizabeth webby. new south wales: sydney university press, 2013, 450 pp. isbn: 9781743320099 (pbk) $ aud 25. 00 urltoken; = 1 & nid; = 838
you have chosen to write about henry lawson, with close reference to two of his short texts from while the billy boils. the purpose of your response will be to persuade your audience that lawson was the greatest of the early australian writers and that his work is a rich source of information on colonial australia .
[ this is a page - by - page literal transcription of the holograph manuscript in bertha lawson' s hand, with some corrections by henry lawson. errors remain uncorrected. for a reading text, see ‘while the billy boils: the original newspaper versions’, ed. paul eggert (2012). ]
she reflected solemnly for a while, and then asked him if it felt sore .
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a billy was boiling unheeded on the fire. mason sat at the table with his face buried in his arms .
{ { cite news urltoken | title =
while the billy boils .
| newspaper = [ [ the sydney morning herald ] ] | issue = 24, 567 | location = new south wales, australia | date = 2 october 1916 | accessdate = 10 july 2018 | page = 4 | via = national library of australia } }
article details ,
biography of a book: henry lawson' s while the ...
in while the billy boils, lawson tends to use short, sharp sentences, sparse adjectives and honed - to - the - bone description. his style has often been seen as ‘typically australian’, with its dry descriptions of the landscape. looking at a few examples will help students to understand how lawson develops a sense of tone and conveys attitudes through his writing .
the edition also facilitates a close study of lawson’s collaboration with the producers of the collection in 1896, in particular with his copy - editor arthur w. jose and publisher george robertson. facsimile images (available online) of the printer’s copy that they prepared for while the billy boils supplement the edition’s listing of the alterations that each of them made, revealing the textual history of each story or sketch .
{ { cite news urltoken | title =
while the billy boils .
| newspaper = [ [ the register (adelaide) ] ] | volume = lxxxvi, | issue = 25, 319 | location = south australia | date = 25 october 1921 | accessdate = 10 july 2018 | page = 5 | via = national library of australia } }
the scholarly edition of while the billy boils (published by sydney university press in 2013 and edited by paul eggert) notes that lawson’s stories were often short and self - contained as they needed to be sold to newspapers (p. xxi). although publishing constraints may have determined the length of lawson’s pieces of writing, brevity and precision are the determining features of his style .
australia was still a series of colonies when henry lawson was born. while the billy boils was first published in 1896, shortly before federation. paul eggert’s biography of a book (sydney university press, 2013) traces the history of its publication and is well worth a read if wishing to develop an understanding of the australian publishing industry in lawson’s time and the iconic nature of the collection .
souvenir program for a theatrical production held during the first world war. this program is for a repeat performance of' while the billy boils' by the australian flying corps concert party (minchinhampton aerodrome) at the aif and war chest club in london. the concert was held at 7. 40pm circa june 1918. the setting for the play is the australian bush at yarra glen in victoria and the program includes explanations of australian terms and expressions .
handwritten notes pencilled on the reverse explain that it is, in fact, a model for the drop scene or back curtain of the “australian night’s entertainment” performed by members of the australian flying corps at the minchinhampton aerodrome in gloucester, england in july 1918. the production featured a dramatisation of c. j. dennis’ poem “while the billy boils” written and directed by wesley old boy and wyvern f. beaumont “monte” phillips. monte recalled :
one of the children died while she was here alone. she rode nineteen miles for assistance, carrying the dead child .
on the edge of the plain
has been cited as the
perfect
example of an effective sketch story. [ 1 ] critic john barnes believes that the story was ahead of its time, writing that
to a modern reader of chekhov, the art of this little story is quickly recognised, but the originality of what lawson was doing on his own went unremarked when while the billy boils was published in 1896 .
[ 1 ]
each man feels for the mouth of his sugar - bag with one hand while he keeps the bearings of his pot with the other .
“oh, of course i remember you! what was i thinking about? i’ve had such a lot of worry lately that i don’t know whether i’m on my head or my heels. besides, you’ve grown since then, and changed a lot. you’re billy — billy ——”
rats entered into the spirit of the thing; he stripped to the waist, and while he was getting ready the travellers pretended to bet on the result .
“we had a camp fire on the stage with a billy, pannikin, saddle, bridle, whips, australian riding togs—and other indicia of the atmosphere of australia. billy boyd, brother of pen boyd, the australian artist, manipulated the paints and brushes—this model is his own remembrance of the healesville valley. the wings are gums .
[ this is a transcription of the major handwritten additions to the clipping of
an old mate of your father' s
. the hand is henry lawson’s; the corrections in black ink are those of his editor in 1895, arthur jose. lawson’s text is given. for a fuller recording of the stages of correction and revision, and for further explanation, see the scholarly edition ‘while the billy boils: the original newspaper versions’, ed. paul eggert (2012). ]
brighten' s sister - in - law
is one of a series of joe wilson stories that appeared in joe wilson and his mates (1901), which along with lawson' s earlier collection while the billy boils (1896), contains the author' s best work. like chekhov, lawson never published a novel. again like chekhov, he was more interested in portraying character and interpersonal dynamics, than in developing plot .
“you see, it must have been another bullock - driver that died. there was an old shanty - keeper up coonamble way, so billy said, that used to always mistake him for another bullocky and mistake the other bullocky for him — couldn’t tell the one from the other no way — and he used to have bills against billy that the other bullock - driver’d run up, and bills against the other that billy’d run up, and generally got things mixed up in various ways, till billy wished that one of ’em was dead. and the funniest part of the business was that billy wasn’t no more like the other man than chalk is like cheese. you’ll often drop across some colour - blind old codger that can’t tell the difference between two people that ain’t got a bit of likeness between ’em .
lawson' s writing is beautiful, subtle, and incredibly evocative of time and place. while the billy boils is full of wonderful stories and sketches, but for me it doesn’t quite work as a collection. there is a sketch describing a train trip across the australian outback, the monotony of the long miles and faceless towns only somewhat relieved chance meetings with colorful strangers. the book reads something like that; each sketch beautiful and true, every character interesting, yet read all toget
“on the edge of a plain” was originally published in the bulletin in may, 1893 and then reappeared three years later in lawson’s collection titled while the billy boils. at just over 500 words, “on the edge of a plain” truly meets the definition of what a sketch story should be and many critics contend that it is not just the apotheosis of lawson’s collection of such stories, but stands as one of the best ever written—if, indeed, not the very model of what of a sketch story could and should achieve .
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billy tea, damper, quoits, skipping and checkers, st patrick’s had all the ingredients for a day of old - school shenanigans on wednesday, august 16 .
nothing was said for a while, until malachi, after fidgeting a good deal on his stool, asked the bricklayer when he was leaving the station .
“seed old corney in town saturday, ‘n he said thur was enough to make it worth while bailin’ out. bin bailin’ all the mornin’. ”
after a long while we closed our book, and looking through the window, saw a hawker’s turn - out which was too sorrowful for description .
the defunct was a young union labourer, about twenty - five, who had been drowned the previous day while trying to swim some horses across a billabong of the darling .
is that what makes lawson some kind of great writer, some kind of great australian writer? and are these two things the same thing? back in 1972, brian matthews wrote the receding wave in which he argued that the best of lawson’s short fiction was great by any standards. it’s interesting to ponder this question as we read and re - read lawson’s most famous book, while the billy boils. it is made up of these stories and sketches of lawson which j. f. archibald published in the bulletin and was subsequently published in book form by angus and robertson .
by way of variety, the artist might make a water - colour sketch of a fettler’s tent on the line, with a billy hanging over the fire in front, and three fettlers standing round filling their pipes .
an early australian prime minister, william morris ‘billy’ hughes, once referred to lawson as the ‘minstrel of the people’. how does the piece you have read relate to the concerns or interests of ordinary australians in the time when lawson was writing ?
he scratched the back of his head, and thought a while, and hesitated like a stranger who is going to do you a favour at some personal inconvenience .
he rested brummy on the ground while he had another pull at the bottle, and, before going on, packed the bag of bones on his shoulder under the body, and he soon stopped again .
another from ron edwards, this collected from stan dean of cairns, a song he wrote in the 1920s as part of a skit he wrote while picking hops in victoria .
a boy is seen to run wildly along the siding and hurl a missile at a feeding cow; the cow runs forward a short distance through the trees, and then stops to graze again while the boy stirs up another milker .
they talked awhile; then sunlight proposed to second the swag, while his mate supported the old man, and after some persuasion, milky agreed, for the sake of the lark, to act as time - keeper and referee .
“no — you’re smart — for fear i’d clear. at last i swore on the bible that i’d never leave home while the old folks were alive; and then mother seemed easier in her mind. ”
while he celebrated the australian virtues of toughness and mateship, he also emphasized the country' s harshness and its ability to damage the human spirit. today' s critics understand that he was writing about the
dark side
of the australian experience .
there was a rabbit trapper’s camp amongst those trees; he had made a fire to boil his billy with gum - leaves and twigs, and it was the scent of that fire which interested the exile’s nose, and brought a wave of memories with it .
“mother, i won’t never go drovin’; blarst me if i do! ” and she hugs him to her worn - out breast and kisses him; and they sit thus together while the sickly daylight breaks over the bush .
the class should divide into two, with half arguing lawson’s images of the bush are too negative and full of ‘doom and gloom’, while the other half counters this, saying he offers realist portraits of a country struggling towards self - realisation .
i thought that australia day was a good time to start an australian version *. while some of the songs will be previously - recorded songs, most will be recorded for this blog. i plan to use a variety of arrangement styles and recording approaches. while i will attempt to record versions of these songs which are pleasant to listen to, this is more of an archiving project than a recording venture .
in a slashing attack on australian publishers and booksellers, mrs lawson said that while her husband’s complete works could not be bought in sydney ‘for love nor money, ’ russia was translating and publishing them .
then he calmed down, carried his swag to the side of the track, sat down on it and talked rationally about bush matters for a while; but presently he grew silent and began to feel his muscles and smile idiotically .
tom’s dog did his best; but he fell sick while chawing up the fourth capitalistic canine, and subsequently died. the dummies had robbed that cur with poison before starting it across — that was the only way they could get at tom’s dog .
next day a funeral gathered at a corner pub and asked each other in to have a drink while waiting for the hearse. they passed away some of the time dancing jigs to a piano in the bar parlour. they passed away the rest of the time skylarking and fighting .
the drover’s wife makes the children stand together near the dog - house while she watches for the snake. she gets two small dishes of milk and sets them down near the wall to tempt it to come out; but an hour goes by and it does not show itself .
billy is a canadian who immigrated to australia and had a successful, but short career through the 1940s. all of his 18 songs that have been previously released in 1940 and 1947 with basically guitar, but also 3 with band accompaniment consisting of great fiddle and accordion work in romantic canadian style. billy, who passed away in 1977, was not only a great singer. his yodeling was fantastic, too. this cd is of great historical meaning and will please both fans of old canadian and australian country music .
“the thunderin’ jumpt - up bones is all skew - whift, ” he said. “‘ole on, brummy, an’ i’ll fix ’em”— and he leaned the dead man against a tree while he settled the bones on his shoulder, and took another pull at the bottle .
dave shut up for a good while, but presently i says to dave “i see that them hoops is comin’ in again, dave. the paper says that this here lady duff had one on when she landed. ”
then he placed the other strip on top, with the hollow side downwards — thus sandwiching the defunct between the two pieces — removed the saddle - strap, which he wore for a belt, and buckled it round one end, while he tried to think of something with which to tie up the other .
“you can drive me somewhere where i can leave my swag and dog while i get some decent clothes to see a tailor in, ” he said to the cabman. “my old dog ain’t used to cabs, you see. ”
“you’d better invite some woman you know to come on a visit, and pass her off as your sister, ” said brown to his wife, while steelman was gone for the beer. “i’ve made a mess of it. ”
bob smoked in silence for a while, and seemed to look at some dark clouds that were drifting along like a funeral out in the west. presently he said half aloud something that sounded like “all, all — why — past. ”
we were delayed for an hour or so inside sydney heads, taking passengers from the oroya, which had just arrived from england and anchored off watson’s bay. an adelaide boat went alongside the ocean liner, while we dropped anchor at a respectable distance. this puzzled some of us until one of the passengers stopped an ancient mariner and inquired. the sailor jerked his thumb upwards, and left. the passengers stared aloft till some of them got the lockjaw in the back of their necks, and then another sailor suggested that we had yards to our masts, while the adelaide boat had not .
on 23 july 1892, paterson published his reply to lawson, entitled ‘in defence of the bush’. while lawson had accused writers such as paterson of being ‘city bushmen’, paterson had countered by claiming that lawson’s view was full of ‘doom and gloom’ .
on reaching the hut the old man dumped the corpse against the wall, wrong end up, and stood scratching his head while he endeavoured to collect his muddled thoughts; but he had not placed brummy at the correct angle, and, consequently, that individual fell forward and struck him a violent blow on the shoulder with the iron toes of his blucher boots .
three times a day the black billies and cloudy nose - bags are placed on the table. the men eat in a casual kind of way, as though it were only a custom of theirs, a matter of form — a habit which could be left off if it were worth while .
at last, persuading himself that the noise was caused by possums or the wind, the old man went inside, boiled his billy, and, after composing his nerves somewhat with a light supper and a meditative smoke, retired for the night. he was aroused several times before midnight by the same mysterious sound overhead, but, though he rose and examined the roof on each occasion by the light of the rising moon, he discovered nothing .
a little farther on we saw the first sundowner. he carried a royal alfred, and had a billy in one hand and a stick in the other. he was dressed in a tail - coat turned yellow, a print shirt, and a pair of moleskin trousers, with big square calico patches on the knees; and his old straw hat was covered with calico. suddenly he slipped his swag, dropped his billy, and ran forward, boldly flourishing the stick. i thought that he was mad, and was about to attack the train, but he wasn’t; he was only killing a snake. i didn’t have time to see whether he cooked the snake or not — perhaps he only thought of adam .
“well, the widow struggled along and managed without her husband just the same as she had always struggled along and managed with him — a little better, perhaps. an old digger used to drop in of evenings and sit by the widow’s fire, and yarn, and sympathize, and smoke, and think; and just as he began to yarn a lot less, and smoke and think a lot more, billy nowlett himself turned up with a load of rations for a sheep station. he’d been down by the other road, and the letter he’d wrote to his missus had gone astray. billy wasn’t surprised to hear that he was dead — he’d been killed before — but he was surprised about the five quid .
the men pretended to get more and more excited, and betted freely; and rats did his best. at last they got tired of the fun, sunlight let the swag lie after milky called time, and the jackaroo awarded the fight to rats. they pretended to hand over the stakes, and then went back for their swags, while the old man put on his shirt .
the two travellers had yarned late in their camp, and the moon was getting low down through the mulga. mitchell’s mate had just finished a rather racy yarn, but it seemed to fall flat on mitchell — he was in a sentimental mood. he smoked a while, and thought, and then said :
it made him wild to be called a mug, and we swore and growled at each other for a while; but we daren’t speak loud enough to have a fight, so at last i agreed to toss up for it, and i lost .
i came into this book not really expecting to like it, but was definitely pleasantly surprised. the stories, while simple, have amazing depth and emotion. the overall feeling was very australian, the hardships and lack of hope offset by the humour and strength of friendship. the stories could make me laugh and weep, sometimes together. beautiful work .
“me luck’s in for the day and no mistake! ” said the shepherd, scratching the back of his head, while he took stock of the remains. he picked up a stick and tapped the body on the shoulder; the flesh sounded like leather. he turned it over on its side; it fell flat on its back like a board, and the shrivelled eyes seemed to peer up at him from under the blackened wrists .
“ah, well! ... well, one evening i was playing marbles out in front of our house when a chap we knew gave me his pipe to mind while he went into a church - meeting. the little church was opposite — a ‘chapel’ they called it. ”
brook agreed, and then they turned their faces towards the homestead. half - way down the sidling was a clump of saplings, with a big log lying amongst them. here brook paused. “we’ll sit down for a while and have a rest, ” said he. “sit down, lizzie. ”
presently — suddenly, it seemed to our drowsy senses — two of the shearers and the bagman commenced arguing with drunken gravity and precision about politics, even while a third bushman was approaching the climax of an out - back yarn of many adjectives, of which he himself was the hero. the scraps of conversation that we caught were somewhat as follow. we leave out most of the adjectives .
the country was pretty open round there — the nearest timber was better than a mile away, and i wanted to give bill a good start across the flat before the go - as - you - can commenced; so i talked for a while, and while we were talking i thought i might as well go the whole hog — i might as well die for a pound as a penny, if i had to die; and if i hadn’t i’d have the pound to the good, anyway, so to speak. anyhow, the risk would be about the same, or less, for i might have the spirit to run harder the more i had to run for — the more spirits i had to run for, in fact, as it turned out — so i says :
he rested again; then he continued: “that — that there dog was pupped on the track, ” he said, with a sad sort of a smile. “i carried him for months in a billy, and afterwards on my swag when he knocked up... . and the old slut — his mother — she’d foller along quite contented — and sniff the billy now and again — just to see if he was all right... . she follered me for god knows how many years. she follered me till she was blind — and for a year after. she follered me till she could crawl along through the dust no longer, and — and then i killed her, because i couldn’t leave her behind alive! ”
while we were waiting for the oroya some of the ship’s officers came and had a consultation over this log and called up part of the crew, who got some more ropes and a chain on to it. it struck us at the time that that log would make a sensation if it fetched loose in rough weather. but there wasn’t any rough weather .
they spared him half a pound; but he said he didn’t want it all, and cut off about an ounce, which he laid on the end of his swag. then he took the lid off his billy and produced a fishing - line. he baited the hook, threw the line across the track, and waited for a bite. soon he got deeply interested in the line, jerked it once or twice, and drew it in rapidly. the bait had been rubbed off in the grass. the old man regarded the hook disgustedly .
“eggert carefully unpacks the multiple complexities of negotiating authorial reputation in a uk - dominated marketplace, offering insight into how angus and robertson sought to claim a place for australian - based publishing through robust management of lawson’s fresh and engaging work, while at the same time contextualizing these negotiations within larger social and cultural movements and evaluations. [
golden gully had its little community of fossickers who lived in a clearing called spencer’s flat on one side and pounding flat on the other, but they lent no life to the scene; they only haunted it. a stranger might have thought the field entirely deserted until he came on a coat and a billy at the foot of saplings amongst the holes, and heard, in the shallow ground underneath, the thud of a pick, which told of some fossicker below rooting out what little wash remained .
consider dorothea mackellar’s ‘my country’ (printed on pamphlets which were distributed to the anzac soldiers to remind them fondly of home), a poem written while in england. compare this to the grudgingly patriotic voice in ‘his country – after all’. how does lawson’s harshly masculine and realist vision of australia contrast to mackellar’s lyrical and emotive imagery ?
he caught several cod and a bream while they were there, and invited them to camp and have tea with him. but they wished to reach a certain shed next day, so — after the ancient had borrowed about a pound of meat for bait — they went on, and left him fishing contentedly .
we got the billy boiled first, and some leaves laid down for our beds and the swags rolled out. we thanked the lord that we had some cooked meat and a few johnny - cakes left, for we didn’t feel equal to cooking. we put the billy of tea and our tucker - bags between the heads of our beds, and the pipes and tobacco in the crown of an old hat, where we could reach them without having to get up. then we lay down on our stomachs and had a feed. we didn’t eat much — we were too tired for that — but we drank a lot of tea. we gave our calves time to tone down a bit; then we lit up and began to answer each other. it got to be pretty comfortable, so long as we kept those unfortunate legs of ours straight and didn’t move round much .
while out boating one sunday afternoon on a billabong across the river, we saw a young man on horseback driving some horses along the bank. he said it was a fine day, and asked if the water was deep there. the joker of our party said it was deep enough to drown him, and he laughed and rode farther up. we didn’t take - much notice of him .
continue the debate between paterson and lawson over the romantic versus the realist view of the bush .
they lowered him to the bottom, and tom shouldered his pick in silence and walked off to the tent. he found the tin plate, pint - pot, and things set ready for him on the rough slab table under the bush shed. the tea was made, the cabbage and potatoes strained and placed in a billy near the fire. he found the fried bacon and steak between two plates in the camp - oven. he sat down to the table but he could not eat. he felt mean. the inexperience and hasty temper of his brother had caused the quarrel between them that morning; but then jack admitted that, and apologized when he first tried to make it up .
“yes — you’re very smart, ” snapped mitchell; “never mind ——. this reminds me that i got a chap at a pub to pawn my last suit, while i stopped inside and waited for an old mate to send me a pound; but i kept the shooter, and if he hadn’t sent it i’d have been the late john mitchell long ago. ”
mason was kneeling in front of the “face” digging away by the light of a tallow candle stuck in the side. the floor of the drive was very wet, and his trousers were heavy and cold with clay and water; but the old digger was used to this sort of thing. his pick was not bringing out much to - day, however, for he seemed abstracted and would occasionally pause in his work, while his thoughts wandered far away from the narrow streak of wash - dirt in the “face. ”
there is some growling about the water here, and one of the men makes a billy of tea. the water is better cooked. pint - pots and sugar - bags are groped out and brought to the kitchen hut, and each man fills his pannikin; the irishman keeps a thumb on the edge of his, so as to know when the pot is full, for it is very dark, and there is no more firewood. you soon know this way, especially if you are in the habit of pressing lighted tobacco down into your pipe with the top of your thumb. the old slush - lamps are all burnt out .
( 1896), it traces the entire history of its production and critical reception in australia through the changing social and intellectual formations of the twentieth century. it is an engrossing detective story, a rich repository of evidence, and a masterpiece of a particular kind of literary scholarship. it will have a substantial impact on australian literary studies while also making this australian case an illuminating one for international work in the field of textual studies. ”
“what’s the matter with the little room at the back? ” he asked .
and the sun sank again on the grand australian bush — the nurse and tutor of eccentric minds, the home of the weird .
the fellows in the fore - cabin that evening were growling about the bad quality of the grub supplied .
the oracle came up with smith that night at the nearest shanty, and found that he had forgotten again, and in several instances, and was forgetting some more under the influence of rum and of the flattering interest taken in his case by a drunken bachelor of arts who happened to be at the pub. tom came in quietly from the rear, and crooked his finger at the shanty - keeper. they went apart from the rest, and talked together a while very earnestly. then they secretly examined smith’s swag, the core of which was composed of tom’s and his mate’s valuables .
we looked out again while the train was going slowly, and saw a teamster’s camp: three or four wagons covered with tarpaulins which hung down in the mud all round and suggested death. a long, narrow man, in a long, narrow, shoddy overcoat and a damp felt hat, was walking quickly along the road past the camp. a sort of cattle - dog glided silently and swiftly out from under a wagon, “heeled” the man, and slithered back without explaining. here the scene vanished .
it was the first monday after the holidays. the children had taken their seats in the old bark school, and the master called out the roll as usual :
“all the same it wasn’t him; for the real brummy turned up later on; but he couldn’t make the people believe he wasn’t dead. they was mostly english country people from kent and yorkshire and those places; and the most self - opinionated and obstinate people that ever lived when they got a thing into their heads; and they got it into their heads that brummy usen was shot while trying to bail up old mr s—— and was dead and buried .
mason reached the surface and came and knelt by the other side of the boy .
the stranger pushed open the creaking door, and stood bareheaded just inside the doorway .
the dog went off, and his master returned to the interior of the hut .
“then, again, there was the case of brummy usen — hughison i think they spelled it — the bushranger; he was shot by old mr s— — of e— — while trying to stick the old gentleman up. there’s something about it in a book called ‘robbery under arms’, though the names is all altered — and some other time i’ll tell you all about the digging of the body up for the inquest and burying it again. this brummy used to work for a publican in a sawmill that the publican had; and this publican and his daughter identified the body by a woman holding up a branch tattooed on the right arm. i’ll tell you all about that another time. this girl remembered how she used to watch this tattooed woman going up and down on brummy’s arm when he was working in the saw - pit — going up and down and up and down, like this, while brummy was working his end of the saw. so the bushranger was inquested and justifiable - homicided as brummy usen, and buried again in his dust and blood stains and monkey - jacket .
with the scientific expression, took a note - book from his pocket, opened it on the table and said 'come in': one of the chaps appeared with a billy of hot coffee two pint pot' s and some cake. he said he thought you chaps might like a drop of coffee before you turned in and the boys had forgot to ask you to wait for it down in the camp. he also wanted to know wether mr stoneleigh and his man would be alright and quite comfortable for the night and wether they had blankets enough - - - there was some wood at the back of the whare and they could light a fire if they liked .
there was no shaking off steelman. he had a way about him which would often make it appear as if you had invited him to stay, and pressed him against his roving inclination, and were glad to have him round for company, while he remained only out of pure goodwill to you. he didn’t like to offend an old friend by refusing his invitation .
you have been here, say, three months, and are only about two weeks behind. the landlady still says, “good morning, mr careless, ” or “good evening, mr careless, ” but there is an unpleasant accent on the “mr, ” and a still more unpleasantly pronounced stress on the “morning” or “evening. ” while your money lasted you paid up well and regularly — sometimes in advance — and dined out most of the time; but that doesn’t count now .
they let him think. the coach descended the natural terraces above the river bank, and pulled up at the pub .
the coach had climbed the terraces on the south side of the river, and was bowling along on a level stretch of road across the elevated flat .
sometimes the boy sticks his head into the cow’s side, hangs on by a teat, and dozes, while the bucket, mechanically gripped between his knees, sinks lower and lower till it rests on the ground. likely as not he’ll doze on until his mother’s shrill voice startles him with an inquiry as to whether he intends to get that milking done to - day; other times he is roused by the plunging of the cow, or knocked over by a calf which has broken through a defective panel in the pen. in the latter case the youth gets tackle on to the calf, detaches its head from the teat with the heel of his boot, and makes it fast somewhere. sometimes the cow breaks or loosens the leg - rope and gets her leg into the bucket and then the youth clings desperately to the pail and hopes she’ll get her hoof out again without spilling the milk. sometimes she does, more often she doesn’t — it depends on the strength of the boy and the pail and on the strategy of the former. anyway, the boy will lam the cow down with a jagged yard shovel, let her out, and bail up another .
the selector’s wife removes the newspapers, and reveals a thick, yellow layer of rich cream, plentifully peppered with dust that has drifted in somehow. she runs a forefinger round the edges of the cream to detach it from the tin, wipes her finger in her mouth, and skims. if the milk and cream are very thick she rolls the cream over like a pancake with her fingers, and lifts it out in sections. the thick milk is poured into a slop - bucket, for the pigs and calves, the dishes are “cleaned”— by the aid of a dipper full of warm water and a rag — and the wife proceeds to set the morning’s milk. tom holds up the doubtful - looking rag that serves as a strainer while his mother pours in the milk. sometimes the boy’s hands get tired and he lets some of the milk run over, and gets into trouble; but it doesn’t matter much, for the straining - cloth has several sizable holes in the middle .
they stayed on for several days. after breakfast and when the men were going to work steelman and smith would go out along the line with the black bag and poke round amongst the “layers and stratas” in sight of the works for a while, as an evidence of good faith; then they’d drift off casually into the bush, camp in a retired and sheltered spot, and light a fire when the weather was cold, and steelman would lie on the grass and read and smoke and lay plans for the future and improve smith’s mind until they reckoned it was about dinner - time. and in the evening they would come home with the black bag full of stones and bits of rock, and steelman would lecture on those minerals after tea .
presently the form of the child appeared, motionless and covered with clay and water. mason was climbing up by the steps in the side of the shaft .
they can be given a transcript of the story and follow how the punctuation guides the reading .
“yes, ” the phrenologist continued, while malachi sat horror - stricken; “i’ve got jimmy nowlett’s skull here, ” and he lifted the bag and lovingly felt the pumpkin — it must have weighed forty pounds. “i spoilt one of his best bumps with the tomahawk. i had to hit him twice, but it’s no use crying over spilt milk. ” here he drew a heavy shingling - hammer out of the bag and wiped off with his sleeve something that looked like blood. malachi had been edging round for the door, and now he made a rush for it. but the skull - fancier was there before him .
steelman turned into the top bunk on one side and smith took the lower on the other. steelman had the candle by his bunk, as usual; he lit his pipe for a final puff before going to sleep, and held the light up for a moment so as to give smith the full benefit of a solemn, uncompromising wink. the wink was silently applauded and dutifully returned by smith. then steelman blew out the light, lay back, and puffed at his pipe for a while. presently he chuckled, and the chuckle was echoed by smith; by and by steelman chuckled once more, and then smith chuckled again. there was silence in the darkness, and after a bit smith chuckled twice. then steelman said :
“yes! travel! take the track! go on the wallaby! the cockies over there used to hang the meat up on the branches of the trees, and just shake it whenever they wanted to feed the fowls. and the water was so bad that half a pound of tea in the billy wouldn’t make no impression on the colour — nor the taste. the further west we went the worse our meat got, till at last we had to carry a dog - chain to chain it up at night. then it got worse and broke the chain, and then we had to train the blessed dogs to shepherd it and bring it back. but we fell in with another chap with a bad old dog — a downright knowing, thieving, old hard - case of a dog; and this dog led our dogs astray —— demoralized them — corrupted their morals — and so one morning they came home with the blooming meat inside them, instead of outside — and we had to go hungry for breakfast. ”
while the billy boils is a 1921 australian film from director beaumont smith which adapts several stories from henry lawson . it is considered a lost film . 
while the billy boils is a 1921 australian film from director beaumont smith which adapts several stories from henry lawson. it is considered a lost film.
while the billy boils is a 1921 australian film from director beaumont smith which adapts several stories from henry lawson. it is considered a lost film.