Audrey of the Outback
(Excerpt from Chapter 1)
Audrey Barlow parted the hessian curtains and leaned out of her bedroom window. Her fair plaits swung forward like heavy ropes.
'Stumpy,' she whispered. 'Quick, come here.'
She checked back over her shoulder. Her left plait tickled her neck
as she turned. Douglas, her three-year-old brother, had 'sneaky feet'.
At least, he did when he wore his kangaroo-skin slippers. When he
walked over the skins spread across the mud and crushed ants' nest
floor he didn't make a sound. But there was no-one else in the room.
Audrey leaned further out. When she was in a hurry, like this, she
was glad her parents could not afford glass. She could stick her head
through the window opening quickly.
'This is our chance, Stumpy. We're going to find out the swagman's
secret...' She tilted her head, straining to hear Stumpy's soft words.
'What was that? Yes, it is a secret.'
The swagman had arrived the previous evening, just before the sun
set. Swaggies turned up from time to time, hoping Mrs Barlow, Audrey's
mum, would give them flour or sugar. They didn't have houses of their
own and slept outside under the stars.
Most swaggies offered to work in exchange for food. But some arrived
as the sun was going down and left early in the morning so they didn't
have to do chores. When Dad was home, he called those sort 'sundowners'.
This swaggie arrived just as the family was sitting down to kangaroo
stew. The sudden knock on the door made Audrey squeal. Lightning, the
blue heeler dog, used to announce visitors with his bark. But a month
ago a snake bit him and he was buried out the back.
Price leapt up to open the door to a swagman who was taller and more
solid than anyone Audrey had ever seen. He blocked the doorway with his
large body. His dark beard was bushy enough to make an eagle's nest.
Years in the sun had pouched his eyes with wrinkles. His scuffed boots
were dusty. Audrey noticed a split in the side seam of his brown
jacket. He didn't have anyone to sew for him, and his own fingers
looked too thick to hold a needle.
But it was not his size or his thick beard that made Audrey stare.
It was the bulging chaff bag he carried. Swaggies always had their
bedrolls strapped to their backs, with a tea billy or saucepan hanging
from it. But the large chaff bag was different. Audrey itched to know
what was inside it. The bag bulged unevenly, with bits sticking out as
though it was packed with fingers. And it rattled mysteriously.
Audrey pleaded with Stumpy. 'You have to come with me to the
swaggie's camp. Or I'll never sleep again. Last night my eyes kept
popping open all by themselves.'
She couldn't get the rattle of that chaff bag out of her head. It made her shiver.
Go to Audrey's Fun Page, where you can watch a video of me reading from Audrey Of The Outback.
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