The Far Country Read Free

unsaddled and hung saddle and bridle on a rail of the hay-barn, gave the pony a slap behind and turned it into the house paddock. Then he went into the kitchen and sat down at the long table. Jane was roasting a saddle of mutton for dinner as she had cooked mutton most days of her married life; they ate a sheep in about ten days.
    “Want a cup of tea?” she asked.
    “I don’t mind,” he said, and she poured him one out from the teapot on the table. And then he told her, “Got the wool cheque.”
    “How much?” she asked idly.
    “Little over twenty-two thousand,” he told her.
    She was only mildly interested. “That’s a bit more than last year, isn’t it?”
    “Aye.”
    She said, “Like to peel these potatoes for me, if you’re doing nothing?”
    “We don’t have to do anything,” he told her. “Not with a wool cheque like that.” But he got up and began to peel them at the sink. “You ought to have a girl to help you, make her do things like this.”
    “Where do you think I’d get the girl from?” And then she asked, “How much would we have of that to spend, after paying tax and expenses?”
    “About seven thousand, near as I can figure it.” He scraped away at the potatoes. “It’s all ours this time. What do you want out of it?”
    She stared around the kitchen. “I want a Memory Tickler like Bertha Harrison’s got, one of those things you hang upon the wall, with a long list of things to get in town, and tabs to turn over to remind you. She got hers in Melbourne, at McEwens.”
    “That’s only about five bob’s worth,” he complained.
    “I know, but I want it. Could we have a new stove, Jack? This one’s about worn out, and the top plate’s cracked.”
    “We’d better have an Aga, or an Esse.”
    “You’ve got to have coke for those,” she said. “A wood stove’s best out here, and only about a tenth the money. Another one like this would be all right.”
    He said, “Aw, look, Jane, we’ve got money to spend now.”
    The anxious years had bitten deep into her. “No need to chuck it away, though,” she said.
    “We wouldn’t be chucking it away. It’ld be cooler in the kitchen with a stove like that. It’s time we spent a bit of money, anyway; my word, we haven’t had a holiday for years. What do you say if we go down to Melbourne for a week and do a bit of shopping, stay at the Windsor and see some theatres? I’ve got a lot of things I’d like to do down there.”
    “I’ve not got any clothes for staying in a place like that,” she said.
    “We’ll get some,” he replied. “After all, we’ve got seven thousand pounds to spend.”
    “We won’t have long, if you go on like this.”
    “We don’t want to have it long. If we hang on to the money it’ll only go to the kids after our time, and they’ll have enough to spoil them, anyhow. I don’t hold with leaving kids a lot of money. We never had any, and we got through.”
    She poured herself a cup of tea and he left the sink and came and sat at the table with her. “I’d like to go to Melbourne for a week,” she said thoughtfully, “if we’ve really got the money. When was it we went down there last?”
    “Two years ago,” he said. “When we took Angie to the University.”
    “Is it as long as that? Well, I suppose it would be. I wouldn’t want to go before the Show.” The Banbury Show was in the middle of December; she always competed in the Flower section and in the Home-Made Cakes, and usually won a prize in both. “And thenthere’s Christmas,” she said. “Everybody’s on holiday till the middle of January.”
    He nodded. “Suppose we booked a room for a week about the middle of January?”
    She smiled. “I’d like that, Jack. Give me time to get some clothes made up. I couldn’t go to the Windsor with what I’ve got now.”
    He pulled a packet of cigarettes out of his pocket and passed it across to her; she took one and he lit it for her, and for a while they sat smoking in silence.