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1、国外英文文学系列 In Bad Company and other storiesTitle: In Bad Company and other storiesAuthor: Rolf BoldrewoodIN BAD COMPANY1CHAPTER IBill Hardwick was as fine a specimen of an Australian as you could find in a days march. Active as a cat and strong withal, he was mostly described as a real good all-round
2、chap, that you couldnt put wrong at any kind of work that a man could be asked to do.He could plough and reap, dig and mow, put up fences and huts, break in horses and drive bullocks; he could milk cows and help in the dairy as handily as a woman. These and other accomplishments he was known to poss
3、ess, and being a steady, sensible fellow, was always welcome when work was needed and a good man valued. Besides all this he was the fastest and the best shearer in the district of Tumut, New South Wales, where he was born, as had been his father and mother before him. So that he was a true Australi
4、an in every sense of the word.It could not be said that the British race had degenerated as far as he was concerned. Six feet high, broad-chested, light-flanked, and standing on his legs like a gamecock, he was always ready to fight or work, run, ride or swim, in fact to tackle any muscular exercise
5、 in the world at the shortest notice.Bill had always been temperate, declining to spend his earnings to enrich the easy-going township publican, whose mode of gaining a living struck him as being too far removed from that of honest toil. Such being his principles and mode of life, he had put by a co
6、uple of hundred pounds, and taken up a selection. This means (in Australia) that he had conditionally purchased three hundred and twenty acres of 2Crown Land, had paid up two shillings per acre of the upset price, leaving the balance of eighteen shillings, to be paid off when convenient. He had cons
7、tructed thereon, chiefly with his own hands, a comfortable, four-roomed cottage, of the slab architecture of the period, and after fencing in his property and devoting the proceeds of a couple of shearings to a modest outlay in furniture, had married Jenny Dawson, a good-looking, well-conducted youn
8、g woman, whom he had known ever since he was big enough to crack a stockwhip.In her way she was as clever and capable; exceptionally well adapted for the position of a farmers wife, towards which occupation her birth and surroundings had tended. She was strong and enduring in her way, as were her hu
9、sband and brothers in theirs. She could milk cows and make excellent butter, wasnt afraid of a turbulent heifer in the dairy herd, or indisposed to rise before daylight in the winter mornings and drive in the milkers through the wet or frozen grass. She could catch and saddle her own riding-horse or
10、 drive the spring cart along an indifferent road to the country town. She knew all about the rearing of calves, pigs, and poultry; could salt beef and cure baconin a general way attend to all the details of a farm. Her father had acquired a small grant in the early colonial days, and from its produc
11、e and profits reared a family of healthy boys and girls.They had not been educated up to the State school standard now considered necessary for every dweller in town or country, but they could read and write decently; had also such knowledge of arithmetic as enabled them to keep their modest account
12、s. Such having been the early training of Bills helpmate, it was a fair augury that, with luck and good conduct, they were as likely as any young couple of their age to prosper reasonably, so as eventually to acquire a competence, or even, as indeed not a few of their old friends and neighbours had
13、done, to attain to that enviable position generally described as making a fortune.For the first few years nothing could have been more promising than the course of affairs at Chidowla or Appletree Flat, as their homestead was formerly named, in consequence of the umbrageous growth of the angophora i
14、n the meadow by the mountain creek, which bordered their farm. Bill stayed at home and worked steadily, until he had put in his 3crop. He cleared and cultivated a larger piece of ground with each succeeding year. The seasons were genial, and the rainfall, though occasionally precarious, did not, dur
15、ing this period, show any diminution. But annually, before the first spring month came round, Bill saddled the old mare, and leading a less valuable or perhaps half-broken young horse, packed his travelling swag upon it and started off for the shearing. Jenny did not particularly like being left alo
16、ne for three months or perhaps four, with no one but the children, for by this time a sturdy boy and baby girl had been added to the household. But Bill brought home such a welcome addition to the funds in the shape of the squatters cheques, that she hid her uneasiness and discomfort from him, only
17、hoping, as she said, that some day, if matters went on as they were going, they would be able to do without the shearing money, and Bill could afford to stop with his wife and children all the year round. That was what she would like.So time went on, till after one more shearing, Bill began to think
18、 about buying the next selection, which an improvident neighbour would shortly be forced to sell, owing to his drinking habits and too great fondness for country race meetings.The soil of the land so handily situated was better than their own, and, as an adjoining farm, could be managed without addi
19、tional expense.The improvements necessary for holding it under the lenient land laws of New South Wales had been effected.They were not particularly valuable, but they had been passed by the Inspector of Conditional Purchases, who was not too hard on a poor man, if he made his selection his bona fid
20、e home and residence. This condition Mr. Dick Donahue certainly had fulfilled as far as locating his hard-working wife Bridget and half-a-dozen bare-legged, ragged children thereon, with very little to eat sometimes, while he was acting as judge at a bush race meeting, or drinking recklessly at the
21、public-house in the township.So now the end had come. The place was mortgaged up to its full value with the bank at Talmorah, the manager of which had refused to advance another shilling upon it.The storekeeper, who had a bill of sale over the furniture, horses and cows, plough, harrow, and winnowin
22、g machine, had 4decided to sell him up. The butcher and the baker, despairing of getting their bills paid, declined further orders. Poor Bridget had been lately feeding herself and the children on milk and potatoes, last years bacon, and what eggs the fowls, not too well fed themselves, kindly produ
23、ced.Jenny had helped them many a time, from womanly pity. But for her, they would often have been without the damper bread, which served to fill up crevices with the hungry broodnot that she expected return or payment, but as she said, How could I see the poor things hungry, while we have a snug hom
24、e and all we can eat and drink?Then she would mentally compare Bills industry with Dicks neglect, and a feeling of wifely pride would thrill her heart as she returned to her comfortable cottage and put her children, always neatly dressed, to sleep in their clean cots.As she sat before the fire, near
25、 the trimly-swept hearth, which looked so pleasant and homely, though there was but a wooden slab chimney with a stone facing, a vision arose before her of prosperous days when they would have a ring fence round their own and the Donahues farmperhaps even an additional conditional lease, to be freeh
26、old eventuallyafterwards a flock of sheep and who knows what in the years to come.The Donahues, poor things, would have to sell and go away, that was certain; they couldnt prevent them being sold upand, of course, Bill might as well buy it as another. The bank manager, Mr. Calthorpe, would sell the
27、place, partly on credit, trusting Bill for the remainder, with security on both farms, because he was sober and industrious. Indeed, he told Bill so last week. What a thing it was to have a good name! When she thought of the way other womens husbands knocked down their money after shearing, forty an
28、d fifty pounds, even more, in a weeks drunken bout, she felt that she could not be too thankful.Now Bill, when shearing was over, generally took a small sum in cashjust enough to see him home, and paid in the cheque for the seasons shearing to his bank account. It was over sixty pounds last year, fo
29、r he sold his spare horsea thirty-shilling colt out of the pound, that he had broken in himselfto the overseer, for ten guineas, and rode home on 5the old mare, who, being fat and frolicsome after her spell, carried him and his swag first-rate.As to the two farms, no doubt it would give them all the
30、y knew, at first, to live and pay interest. But other people could do it, and why shouldnt they? Look at the Mullers! The bark hut they lived in for the first few years is still there. They kept tools, seed potatoes, odds and ends in it now. Next, they built a snug four-roomed slab cottage, with an
31、iron roof. Thats used for the kitchen and mens room. For theyve got a fine brick house, with a verandah and grand furniture, and a big orchard and more land, and a flock of sheep and a dairy and a buggy andeverything. How I should like a buggy to drive myself and the children to the township! Wouldn
32、t it be grand? To be sure theyre Germans, and its well known they work harder and save more than us natives. But what one man and woman can do, another ought to be able for, I say!And here Jenny shut her mouth with a resolute expression and worked away at her needle till bedtime. Things were going o
33、n comfortably with this meritorious young couple, and Bill was getting ready to start for the annual trip down the river, as it was generally described. This was a region distant three hundred miles from the agricultural district where the little homestead had been created. The down the river woolsh
34、eds were larger and less strictly managed (so report said) than those of the more temperate region, which lay near the sources of the great rivers. In some of them as many as one hundred, two hundred, even three hundred thousand sheep were annually shorn. And as the fast shearers would do from a hun
35、dred to a hundred and fifty sheep per day, it may be calculated, at the rate of one pound per hundred, what a nice little cheque would be coming to every man after a seasons shearing. More particularly if the weather was fine.Bill was getting ready to start on the following morning when a man named
36、Janus Stoate arrived, whom he knew pretty well, having more than once shorn in the same shed with him.He was a cleverish, talkative fellow, with some ability and more assurance, qualities which attract steady-going, unimaginative men like Bill, who at once invited him to stay till 6the morning, when
37、 they could travel together. Stoate cheerfully assented, and on the morrow they took the road after breakfast, much to Mrs. Hardwicks annoyance, who did not care for the arrangement. For, with feminine intuition, she distrusted Janus Stoate, about whom she and her husband had had arguments.He was a
38、Londoneran assisted emigrant, a radical socialist, brought out at the expense of the colony. For which service he was so little grateful that he spoke disrespectfully of all the authorities, from the Governor downward, and indeed, as it seemed to her, of respectable people of every rank and conditio
39、n. Now Jenny, besides being naturally an intelligent young woman, utilised her leisure hours during her husbands absence, for reading the newspapers, as well as any books she could get at. She had indeed more brains than he had, which gift she owed to an Irish grandmother. And though she did by no m
40、eans attempt to rule him, her advice was always listened to and considered.I wish you were going with some one else, she said with an air of vexation. Its strange that that Stoate should come, just on your last evening at home. I dont like him a little bit. Hes just artful enough to persuade you men
41、 that hes going to do something great with this Australian Shearers Union that I see so much about in the newspapers. I dont believe in him, and so I tell you, Bill!I know you dont like Unions, he answered, but see what theyve done for the working classes! What could we shearers have done without ou
42、rs?Just what you did before you had anything to do with him and his Union. Do your work and get paid for it. You got your shearing money all right, didnt you? Mr. Templemores cheques, and Mr. Dicksons and Mr. Shands, were always paid, werent they? How should we have got the land and this home, but f
43、or them?Well, but, Jenny, we ought to think about the other workers as well as ourselvesEvery man should stand by his order, as Stoate says.I dont see that at all. Charitys all very well, but we have our own business to look after and let other people mind theirs. Order, indeed! I call it disorder,a
44、nd them that work it up will have to pay for it, mark my words. You 7look at those children, William Hardwick, thats where youve got to give your money to, and your wife, and not a lot of gassing spouters like Janus Stoate, who dont care if their families starve, while theyre drinking and smoking, t
45、alking rubbish, and thinking themselves fine fellows, and what fools you and the rest are to pay them for it.Well, but the squatters are lowering the price of shearing, Jenny; we must make a stand against that, surely!And suppose they do. Isnt wool falling, and sheep too? Arent they boiling down the
46、ir ewes, and selling legs of mutton for a shilling apiece? Why should they go on paying a pound a hundred when everythings down? When prices rise, shearingll go up again, and wages tooyou know we can get mutton now for a penny a pound. Doesnt that make a difference? You men seem to have no sense in
47、you, to talk in that way!Well, but what are we to do? If they go on cutting down wages, theres no saying what theyll do next.Time enough to think about that when it comes. You take a fair thing, now that times are bad, itll help them thats helped you, and when they get better, shearing and everythin
48、g else will go up too. You cant get big wages out of small profits; your friends dont seem to have gumption enough to see that. Im ashamed of you, I really am, Bill!Well, I must go nowI daresay the squatters will give in, and therell be no row at all.What do you want to have a row for, I should like to know? Havent you always been well treated and well fed, and well paid?and now you want to turn on them that did it for you, just as if you were one of those larrikins and spielers, that come up partly for work, and more for gambling and stealing! I say its downright ungrateful and foolish be