Some Everyday Folk and Dawn

Some Everyday Folk and Dawn, by Miles Franklin

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Title: Some Everyday Folk and Dawn
Author: Miles Franklin
Release Date: June 1, 2007 [EBook #21659]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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Transcriber's Note:
The Table of Contents is not part of the original book.

SOME
EVERYDAY
FOLK
AND DAWN

MILES FRANKLIN

First published in Great Britain by
William Blackwood & Sons
1909
* * * * *

TO THE
ENGLISH MEN WHO BELIEVE IN VOTES FOR WOMEN
THIS STORY IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED, BECAUSE THE WOMEN HEREIN CHARACTERISED WERE NEVER FORCED TO BE
"SUFFRAGETTES,"
THEIR COUNTRYMEN HAVING GRANTED THEM THEIR RIGHTS AS
SUFFRAGISTS
IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 1902.
M. F.
* * * * *

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
ONE.
CLAY'S.
TWO. AT CLAY'S.
THREE. BECOMING ACQUAINTED WITH GRANDMA CLAY.
FOUR. DAWN'S AMBITION.
FIVE. MISS FLIPP'S UNCLE.
SIX. GRANDMA CLAY'S LOVE-STORY.
SEVEN. THE LITTLE TOWN OF NOONOON.
EIGHT. GRANDMA TURNS NURSE.
NINE. THE KNIGHT HAS A STOLEN VIEW OF THE LADY.
TEN. PROVINCIAL POLITICS AND SEMI-SUBURBAN DENTISTS.
ELEVEN. ANDREW DISGRACES HIS "RARIN'."
TWELVE. SOME SIDE-PLAY.
THIRTEEN. VARIOUS EVENTS.
FOURTEEN. THE PASSING OF THE TRAINS.
FIFTEEN. ALAS! MISS FLIPP!
SIXTEEN. ADVANCE, AUSTRALIA!
SEVENTEEN. MRS BRAY AND CARRY COME TO ISSUES.
EIGHTEEN. THE FOUNDATION OF THE POULTRY INDUSTRY.
NINETEEN. AN OPPORTUNELY INOPPORTUNE DOUCHE.
TWENTY. "ALAS! HOW EASILY THINGS GO WRONG!"
TWENTY-ONE. THINGS GO MORE WRONG.
TWENTY-TWO. "O SPIRIT, AND THE NINE ANGELS WHO WATCH US ..."
TWENTY-THREE. UNIVERSAL ADULT SUFFRAGE.
TWENTY-FOUR. LITTLE ODDS AND ENDS OF LIFE.
TWENTY-FIVE. "LOVE'S YOUNG DREAM."
TWENTY-SIX. "OFF WITH THE OLD."
TWENTY-SEVEN. "ONE MIGHT THINK BETTER OF MARRIAGE IF ONE'S MARRIED FRIENDS ..."
TWENTY-EIGHT. LET THERE BE LOVE.
TWENTY-NINE. "THE SAVAGE SELLS OR EXCHANGES HIS DAUGHTER, BUT IN ..."
THIRTY. FOR FURTHER PARTICULARS CONSULT 'THE NOONOON ADVERTISER' OF THAT DATE.
L'ENVOI.
* * * * *

GLOSSARY OF COLLOQUIALISMS AND SLANG TERMS.
AUSTRALIAN. AMERICAN EQUIVALENTS. ENGLISH INTERPRETATION.
Billy A tin pail A camp-kettle. Blokes Guys Chaps--fellows. Bosker Dandy or "dandy Something meeting with fine" unqualified approval. Galoot A rube A yokel--a heavy country fellow. Larrikin A hoodlum. Moke A common knockabout horse. Narked Sore Vexed--to have lost the temper. Gin Squaw An aboriginal woman. Quod Jail. Sollicker Somewhat equivalent Something excessive. to "corker" Toff A "sport" or "swell A well-dressed guy" individual--sometimes of the upper ten. Two "bob" Fifty cents Two shillings. To graft To "dig in" To work hard and steadily. To scoot To vamoose or skidoo To leave hastily and unceremoniously. To smoodge To be a "sucker" To curry favour at the expense of independence. "Gives me the pip" "Makes me tired" Bores. "On a string" } Trifling with him. "Pulling his leg"} Kookaburra A giant kingfisher with grey plumage and a merry, mocking, inconceivably human laugh--a killer of snakes, and a great favourite with Australians.
* * * * *

Some Everyday Folk and Dawn.
ONE.
CLAY'S.
The summer sun streamed meltingly down on the asphalted siding of the country railway station and occasioned the usual grumbling from the passengers alighting from the afternoon express.
There were only three who effect this narrative--a huge, red-faced, barrel-like figure that might have served to erect as a monument to the over-feeding in vogue in this era; a tall, spare, old fellow with a grizzled beard, who looked as though he had never known a succession of square feeds; and myself, whose physique does not concern this narrative.
Having surrendered our tickets and come through a down-hill passage to the dusty, dirty, stony, open space where vehicles awaited travellers, the usual corner "pub."--in this instance a particularly dilapidated one--and three tin kangaroos fixed as weather-cocks on a dwelling over the way, and turning hither and thither in the hot gusts of wind, were the first objects to arrest my attention in the town of Noonoon, near the river Noonoon, whereaway it does not particularly matter. The next were the men competing for our favour in the matter of vehicular conveyance.
The big man, by reason of his high complexion, abnormal waist measurement, expensive clothes, and domineering manner, which proclaimed him really a lord of creation, naturally commanded the first and most obsequious attention, and giving his address as "Clay's," engaged the nearest man, who then turned to me.
"Where might you be going?"
"To Jimmeny's Hotel."
"Right O! I can just drop you on the way to Clay's," said he; and the big swell grunted up to a box seat, while I took a position in the body of the vehicle commanding a clear view of the grossness of the highly coloured neck rolling over his collar.
The journey through the town unearthed the fact that it resembled many of its compeers. The oven-hot iron roofs were coated with red dust; a few lackadaisical larrikins upheld occasional corner posts; dogs conducted municipal meetings