Explore "Up the Country: A Saga of Pioneering Days" by Miles Franklin on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Next morning Bert was so unusually lively that he attracted the attention of his stepmother. He whistled and burst into bits of song as he cleaned his bits and buckles, boots and spurs. Now and again he practised shrill, ear-splitting whistles with his lingers. Special attention was given to his revolvers and he took pot shots out the back door at the domestic animals, eventually puncturing the comb of a strutting rooster and bringing Louisa down on him for his brutality. Then, without explanation, he seized half the dough Louisa was rolling out for a pie and put it in a handkerchief. Straight after lunch he rode off on Black Belle No. 2.
Louisa frankly stated her belief that he had gone mad. In the light of Labosseer's recent call upon her, Mrs Poole felt disturbed and expressed her fears to her husband when he came home at sundown.