Rolf Boldrewood

“ The oats look better.'
`Now I think of it,' put in Jim, `Dick Dawson came in from outside, and he said things are shocking bad; all the frontage bare already, and the water drying up.'
`It's always the way,' I said, bitter-like. `As soon as a poor man's got a chance of a decent crop, the season turns against him or prices go down, so that he never gets a chance.'
`It's as bad for the rich man, isn't it?' said George. `It's God's will, and we can't make or mend things by complaining.'
`I don't know so much about that,' I said sullenly. `But it's not as bad for the rich man. ”

“ Wouldn't it be better to live on dry bread and be honest than to be full of money and never know the day when you'd be dragged to gaol?'
`I've heard all that before; but ain't there lots of people that have made their money by all sorts of villainy, that look as well as the best, and never see a gaol?'
`They're always caught some day,' says poor Aileen, sobbing, `and what a dreadful life of anxiety they must lead!'
`Not at all,' I said. `Look at Lucksly, Squeezer, and Frying-pan Jack. Everybody knows how they got their stock and their money. See how they live. ”

“ I've often thought if she'd been the oldest boy instead of me she'd have kept Jim straight, and managed to drive father out of his cross ways—that is, if any one living could have done it. As for riding, I have never seen any one that could sit a horse or handle him through rough, thick country like her. ”

“ Even if the squatters suffer by a drought and lose their stock, they've more stock and money in the bank, or else credit to fall back on; while the like of us lose all we have in the world, and no one would lend us a pound afterwards to save our lives.'
`It's not quite so bad as that,' said George. `I shall lose my year's work unless rain comes, and most of the cattle and horses besides; but I shall be able to get a few pounds to go on with, however the season goes.'
`Oh! if you like to bow and scrape to rich people, well and good,' I said ”

“ We could all ride a bit out of the common, if it comes to that. Better if we'd learned nothing but how to walk behind a plough, year in year out, like some of the folks in father's village in England, as he used to tell us about when he was in a good humour. ”

“ But that's all as people are reared, I suppose. We'd been used to the outside of a horse ever since we could walk almost, and it came natural to us. Anyhow, I think Aileen was about the best of the lot of us at that, as in everything else.
Well, for a bit all went on pretty well at home. Jim and I worked away steady, got in a tidy bit of crop, and did everything that lay in our way right and regular. We milked the cows in the morning, and brought in a big stack of firewood and chopped as much as would last for a month or two. ”