A Day on a Selection Page #2

"A Day on a Selection" by Henry Lawson is a vivid short story that captures the life and struggles of a rural family in Australia. Set against the backdrop of the harsh bush landscape, the narrative explores themes of hardship, resilience, and the intimate connection between people and their land. Through rich descriptions and a keen observation of character, Lawson highlights the challenges faced by settlers, particularly in relation to their work and the relentless demands of nature. The story serves as a poignant reflection on the Australian experience and the enduring spirit of its people.

• Short story

								

milk, and finally dismisses it with the assistance of the calf rope and
a shovel, and gets another. His hand feels sticky and the cleaned finger
makes it look as if he wore a filthy, greasy glove with the forefinger
torn off.

The selector himself is standing against a fence talking to a neighbour.
His arms rest on the top rail of the fence, his chin rests on his hands,
his pipe rests between his fingers, and his eyes rest on a white
cow that is chewing her cud on the opposite side of the fence. The
neighbour's arms rest on the top rail also, his chin rests on his hands,
his pipe rests between his fingers, and his eyes rest on the cow. They
are talking about that cow. They have been talking about her for three
hours. She is chewing her cud. Her nose is well up and forward, and her
eyes are shut. She lets her lower jaw fall a little, moves it to one
side, lifts it again, and brings it back into position with a springing
kind of jerk that has almost a visible recoil. Then her jaws stay
perfectly still for a moment, and you would think she had stopped
chewing. But she hasn't. Now and again a soft, easy, smooth-going
swallow passes visibly along her clean, white throat and disappears. She
chews again, and by and by she loses consciousness and forgets to chew.
She never opens her eyes. She is young and in good condition; she has
had enough to eat, the sun is just properly warm for her, and--well, if
an animal can be really happy, she ought to be.

Presently the two men drag themselves away from the fence, fill their
pipes, and go to have a look at some rows of forked sticks, apparently
stuck in the ground for some purpose. The selector calls these sticks
fruit-trees, and he calls the place “the orchard.” They fool round these
wretched sticks until dinnertime, when the neighbour says he must be
getting home. “Stay and have some dinner! Man alive! Stay and have some
dinner!” says the selector; and so the friend stays.

It is a broiling hot day in summer, and the dinner consists of hot
roast meat, hot baked potatoes, hot cabbage, hot pumpkin, hot peas, and
burning-hot plum-pudding. The family drinks on an average four cups of
tea each per meal. The wife takes her place at the head of the
table with a broom to keep the fowls out, and at short intervals she
interrupts the conversation with such exclamations as “Shoo! shoo!”
 “Tommy, can't you see that fowl? Drive it out!” The fowls evidently pass
a lot of their time in the house. They mark the circle described by the
broom, and take care to keep two or three inches beyond it. Every now
and then you see a fowl on the dresser amongst the crockery, and there
is great concern to get it out before it breaks something. While dinner
is in progress two steers get into the wheat through a broken rail which
has been spliced with stringy-bark, and a calf or two break into
the vineyard. And yet this careless Australian selector, who is too
shiftless to put up a decent fence, or build a decent house and who
knows little or nothing about farming, would seem by his conversation
to have read up all the great social and political questions of the
day. Here are some fragments of conversation caught at the
dinner-table. Present--the selector, the missus, the neighbour,
Corney George--nicknamed “Henry George”--Tommy, Jacky, and the younger
children. The spaces represent interruptions by the fowls and children:

Corney George (continuing conversation): “But Henry George says, in
'Progress and Poverty,' he says--”

Missus (to the fowls): “Shoo! Shoo!”

Corney: “He says--”

Tom: “Marther, jist speak to this Jack.”

Missus (to Jack): “If you can't behave yourself, leave the table.”

Tom [Corney, probably]: “He says in Progress and--”

Missus: “Shoo!”

Neighbour: “I think 'Lookin' Backwards' is more--”

Missus: “Shoo! Shoo! Tom, can't you see that fowl?”

Selector: “Now I think 'Caesar's Column' is more likely--Just look at--”

Missus: “Shoo! Shoo!”

Selector: “Just look at the French Revolution.”

Corney: “Now, Henry George-”

Tom: “Marther! I seen a old-man kangaroo up on--”

Missus: “Shut up! Eat your dinner an' hold your tongue. Carn't you see
someone's speakin'?”

Selector: “Just look at the French--”

Missus (to the fowls): “Shoo! Shoo!” (turning suddenly and unexpectedly
on Jacky): “Take your fingers out of the sugar!--Blast yer! that I
should say such a thing.”

Neighbour: “But 'Lookin' Backwards”'

Missus: “There you go, Tom! Didn't I say you'd spill that tea? Go away
from the table!”

Selector: “I think 'Caesar's Column' is the only natural--”

Missus: “Shoo! Shoo!” She loses patience, gets up and fetches a young
rooster with the flat of the broom, sending him flying into the yard; he
falls with his head towards the door and starts in again. Later on the
conversation is about Deeming.

Selector: “There's no doubt the man's mad--”

Missus: “Deeming! That Windsor wretch! Why, if I was in the law I'd have
him boiled alive! Don't tell me he didn't know what he was doing! Why,
I'd have him--”

Corney: “But, missus, you--”

Missus (to the fowls): “Shoo! Shoo!”
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