The Horse Who Bit a Bushranger

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Book: The Horse Who Bit a Bushranger Read Free
Author: Jackie French
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made from slabs of wood—and yellow cliffs rising above the buildings, straggly shrubs climbing their flanks with determined roots, and windmills everywhere, the wide blades turning in the breeze.
    But then he turned the other way and faced the harbour, and all thought of home vanished. This land was…different. Big, like Jem had said. Even the sky looked further away.
    The harbour was vast, bigger than any Billy could have imagined, dwarfing the boats that bobbed on the waves: fishing boats and whalers and ferry boats, and a few canoes low to the water that must be natives fishin’. Green fingers of land jutted into the water, edged with black rocks. Most of the shore was lined with buildings, but behind them stretched trees, tall and blue-green.
    ‘That there’s what they calls bush,’ said Jem, holding up his arm so he could see despite the harbour’s glare. He grinned, showing his yellow teeth. Billy’s teeth were loose too after so long on water-stew. But at least none had fallen out on the voyage.
    Billy blinked again in the harsh light. It wasn’t just that he’d been in darkness, he realised. It really was brighter here. The sky was so blue it looked like it was painted. No wisps of fog, not even any clouds.
    The convicts were all out now, all who could stand. He wondered how many more were still lying in that stinkin’ hold, shivering in the water as they tried to find the strength to climb the ladder. Some dead maybe, unnoticed in the dark…
    ‘You! And you and you.’ A short man in pale trousers and shirt, with a bright pink cummerbund and a tall hat made out of some kind of dried leaves, poked the end of his whip at Jem and two of the others. ‘You follow me.’
    Jem glared up at him. ‘Watcher mean?’
    ‘I mean yer comin’ with me, and no lip, that’s what.’
    ‘How about me friend? I ain’t goin nowhere without Billy.’
    The man with the hat glanced down at Billy. ‘Don’t need no runts.’
    ‘Then you ain’t takin’ me.’
    ‘Ain’t I?’ The man laughed. ‘You got a choice. Walk free or come with a ball and chain.’ As he spoke two crew members grabbed hold of Jem’s shoulders and began to drag him to the gangplank.
    They couldn’t take Jem! Billy stepped after them, trying not to stagger. ‘I’m strong enough,’ he yelled.
    The man with the hat turned. He looked Billy up and down. ‘Three convicts are all I need today, and three is all I’m taking. Got here early to get the biggest.’
    ‘Taking where?’
    The man looked at him with something approaching sympathy. Did he once stand on a deck like this? wondered Billy suddenly.
    ‘Ain’t no one told you what happens now? You gets assigned to whoever will feed you for as long as you’re sentenced.’
    ‘Not a gaol?’
    ‘No, lad. Not if yer lucky. New South Wales is a gaol without walls.’ He gestured to Jem and the other two. They were on the dock now, Jem still struggling weakly with his captors. ‘We’re goin’ to Dargue’s place, out Parramatta way. I’m Dargue’s foreman.’
    ‘Are you sure you can’t take me as well?’ asked Billy desperately.
    The man hesitated. For a moment Billy thought he was going to agree. But the man shook his head. ‘I got me orders. You ain’t got a trade, have you?’
    ‘What’s a trade?’
    ‘Blacksmith? Groom?’
    The only trade he had were pickpocket. Billy shook his head.
    ‘I’m sorry, lad. Maybe some other cove will pick you out.’ He bent his head and added softly, ‘You’re well out of it. Old Dargue’s heavy with the whip, and he don’t feed his workers none too good neither. You wait here till someone else picks you. I’m goin’ to seek a better place soon as I get me ticket of leave.’
    Only the first bit made any sense to Billy. ‘What if no one takes me?’
    The foreman stood back and shrugged. ‘Then you goes to government work, cutting stone or building roads. At least you get fed regular, down here in Sydney Town at any rate, even though it

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