The Runaway Settlers Read Free Page A

bench outside that inn over there!’
    They sat down, and Jack broke the silence.
    ‘So we don’t know where we’re going!’
    ‘Today, yes. Next week, let’s say—’
    ‘We’re going to seek our fortunes.’
    ‘That’s right, Jack.’
    ‘Fortoons, fortoons,’ sang Emma, not knowing in the least what it was all about.
    They went on, round corners and along winding streets, till they came to the secret friend. Her name was Mrs McCracken and she lived in a long white house with lace curtains, and crocheted counterpanes, and a piano, and gaslight, and windows overlooking the harbour. On the veranda, to the delight of Archie, there swung a cage with a canary singing at the top of its voice.
    Mrs McCracken came to the door wearing a lace cap. Dimples rippled over her cheeks and chin.
    ‘Mary Elizabeth Small!’ she cried. ‘Oh, you’ve come at last! Safe and sound! Oh, it’s too much to believe!’
    She swung little Emma up in a cosy hug, and welcomed everyone into the house. Then she bustled off to bake an enormous apple pie.

3. Ships and Donkeys
    The doctor was cheerful about Jim. Concussion, that was what ailed him: a little more rest would put him right. Within another day Jim’s old impish ways were returning, and it was hard for Mrs McCracken to keep him in bed, even with marvels like picture books and a stereoscope to look through. When a picture was put into the stereoscope, it made people look so tall and near, they seemed to be walking out towards him.
    Sydney was exciting and bewildering, with so much to see in the streets. Mrs Small took the boys out to buy new trousers and jackets. ‘We can’t go to another home looking poverty-stricken,’ she said. Cotton print was bought too, and Mary Ann made dresses for Emma and herself, with help from Mrs McCracken on her sewing-machine. Emma watched by the hour and wanted to poke her fingers in the wheel, for she had never seen a sewing-machine before.
    But there was no success in the search that really mattered—the search for a ship. True, the harbour was full of ships; but every one of them was tied up for a long time, or privately chartered, or carrying cargo only, or bound for some impossible place like China or Peru. Mrs Small went the rounds of the shipping offices, and Mr McCracken, who worked in a bank, used all his influence; then Bill and Jack were sent to the wharves to ask of the seamen; but there was no passage to be had. And soon there were only three days left before Stephen Small would come home and find them gone! He would saddlehis horse and ride, and even the great city with its hundreds of houses might not be enough to hide his family.
    On the fourth day Archie, who hated being kept in the big house even with a canary on the veranda, asked if he might go and find a ship. The others thought this a great joke, as if ships could be found hiding under leaves, like snails or spiders! Archie shrank inside, went silent and ran off without permission. When he did not come back, Bill and Jack were sent to look for him.
    Round broad streets and narrow lanes they went asking if anyone had seen a nine-year-old boy with sandy hair and blue eyes; but the people only said no—but surely he was old enough to ask his way home? And for fear that their own father might soon be asking these very questions, they did not like to say they came from the outback.
    They had almost decided to go back when Jack stopped short.
    ‘Listen, Bill! It’s a donkey!’
    ‘In Sydney? Don’t be daft!’
    ‘But it is—look there.’
    They looked down on an empty section filled with tall grass and weeds, and saw not one donkey, but four of them. The braying came from one grey fellow who was being beaten by two men in a vain effort to make him move. There was a big, dark man in a blue-and-white striped jersey, and another in a sea-jacket. The more they yelled and swore, the more stubborn grew the donkey.
    ‘Huh!’ said Bill. ‘Archie could do better than that.’
    It