Chapter Six - That Summer



Joe never went back to his Mam’s house to live proper, though I know that he would turn up for a meal or a few days or weeks here and there and then be gone. But they seemed to have patched things up not so long after he came out and for some months he was there a lot. There was noise and laughter at the Byrne place and I know that Joe’s brothers and sisters were real glad to have him home. Most days he would appear at our place and it was almost like when we had been young, him being close by and we spent whole afternoons riding through the bush talking of people that I had yet to meet, some fella called Ned Kelly who Joe seemed to think a pretty good sort. He seemed to be helping out this Ned with some project. I knew of the Kelly’s from over Greta way, but did not know them though I knew that Kate and Emma Crawford was good friends, the Crawford’s having land next to Aaron’s selection. Perhaps that was how Joe had met this Ned. I never really knew the story of how they met, but Joe well he was full of the plans that they had for a spot up Bullock Creek, they was building and digging and full of hope.

Hope never seemed enough to carry us lot through though and it was into all these plans and dreams that him and Aaron they ended up back in front of the judge. I never really understood just what set it all off. Maybe it was the hot weather, people acted strange when it got too hot but them Chinese they got mighty upset and then so did Joe and Aaron and it was right carry on I can tell you. The papers well they was full of it, and you can read all what they had to say if you cared to but in the end they was found not guilty and were free to leave. Once again I had sat up at the back of the court watching. This time though Margaret Byrne took the stand to defend her son, I had been filled with worry after that last time and it had only lifted when she had began her statement that supported Joe and Aaron. It was with some relief that we had all left that grand building. A different outcome from the last time but it still left its mark.

Joe he was angry about it, those Chinese fella’s they had always been mates and he could never figure out just how it all went so wrong there. He had grown up with the Chinamen, could speak their language and there had been many an afternoon when we had been just little kids that we had roamed around their camp and they had always been full of smiles and seemed happy to see Ah Joe. It settled down though and I know that he was soon back smoking with them and buying that sticky black stuff that he was so fond of.

Joe was here and there all that summer, he seemed to bunk down in all different places, one never really knew where he would turn up next. I knew that he was spending a lot of time at Aaron’s selection or up in the hills with the Kelly’s but there would be times that he would arrive at our door and spend three or four days chopping wood or mending fences before he would wander off again saying that there was someone that he had to meet up with. Those were good days those, he even won Meg over in the end, fetching and carrying for her and she actually smiled once or twice. She mentioned in passing that he was a nice lad and that perhaps he would not be such a poor choice of brother in law. She got a bit snappy when I laughed at her. But then I knew all about the girls that Joe was calling on. More than one or two but they didn’t seem to mind so why should I be minding for them. Joe made people feel grand about themselves, I could see that, and when I saw those girls in the town or at church I would smile at them and they at me. Because they knew of me, not as any one that they should be wary of but as someone that loved Joe too, and them well they made him smile it seemed very important for some reason for Joe to be having things to smile about.

So Joe well he came and went, sometimes with Aaron, them both helping out around the place and I got to know Aaron that bit more. To like Aaron and to know that him and me well we was not really that different after all. Aaron’s family they was struggling just like the rest of us and he was hanging on to his selection by his finger nails it seemed, one thing after the other happening that took any money they seemed to come by.

Looking back it seemed like all sorts of things came right during that time. Joe was getting along with his Mam, Meg and I we was not fighting and bickering no more. Each of us seeming to know that there was naught to be done for Mam other than to wait and snapping and snarling at each while we did it was not helping none and all. Even Mrs Byrne and old Anton Wicks patched up their differences and became quite friendly. Meg and I often wondering just how friendly but I chose to keep that bit of thinking to meself.

One of our brothers Tom well he and his new wife Essie had their first child, a red headed girl that they named for our Mother, the baby seemed to be in pretty good health if it’s lungs was anything to be going by. They came by to visit and to show off the first grandchild, I don’t know what they was expecting but our Mother barely raised her eyes from her bible. They stayed a couple of days and Tom well he spent some time trying to persuade us to leave and move down near to where he was. I had thought that Meg would be eager but she surprised me somewhat, saying that it would do more harm than good and Mam had said that she wanted to stay close to Da and so we would do that for her. Meg who at times had seemed so impatient and eager to leave suddenly became something else for me that day and I was filled with a love and respect for her that I had never expected I would be having. So Tom and Essie and the little one, they left making us promise to send for anything that we needed. Money would have been good but I suspect that they had none of that to be sharing either, least ways we would not have asked. We were scraping by and they had a babe to be thinking of.

I missed that baby after they left. She had given a life to the place that had not been there in months even when she had been fussing and bawling. It was when she had laughed though that I had found meself laughing with her. I hoped that they would come by again soon, or that perhaps we might find ourselves able to visit them one day.

It was towards the end of summer that there was a fashion for having portraits taken, James Bray in Beechworth had some sort of special going on and it seemed as if every man, woman and child in Beechworth and the surrounding area smartened themselves up and went to have their photograph taken. Even Meg and I. And surprisingly Joe. Though I think his Mam fair dragged him there by his ear. He was still funny about his lip, though to my mind there was nothing to be worrying about. It was a little thin perhaps but not the glaring deformity that he seemed to think it was, but there was no reasoning with him. He had grown a moustache that year, a soft fluffy looking thing though I dared not say that to him as he seemed quite proud of it, if the stroking that he gave it when he was thinking was any indication. But that moustache seemed to me to be the reason that he had that picture taken. He looked very smart. But not really like Joe. All pressed and polished and sort of stiff looking. Not like he was at all really, the Joe that was real was the one that was astride a horse, all loose and easy looking, and he would be smiling. Still it was a nice picture and he gave me one which I tucked away. I am not sure what he did with the one that I gave him in return. Though truthfully it did not look much like me either. He had smiled when he had seen it and dragged a finger through me hair saying that he thought I looked far more beautiful with me hair all down me back that with it piled up on top of me head.

It was the first time that anyone had called me beautiful and even if it was just Joe and he had only said it because he wanted to make me smile it felt grand.