Up the Country: A Saga of Pioneering Days

Timothy and Maria Brennan had come out from Ireland as free immigrants, a fact of which he was boastfully proud. A few years later, Maria Brennan and Rachel Mazere had become greatly attached on the long pilgrimage from Parramatta to Bool Bool, and were ever after as dear as sisters to each other, each giving assistance to the other at the birth of their children. Brennan was only a few months younger than Mazere and, since his wife was the same age as himself, she was some years older than her friend Rachel. Barney, the youngest Brennan, was a year older than Joseph Mazere, and his inseparable at school. Mrs Brennan had had only eight children--six living--but they had told on her more than Mrs Mazere's dozen. She was a shapeless mass of a woman, an inch taller than Charlotte Mazere, but these days rather helpless owing to her bulk and the faulty knitting of an ankle that she had broken some years before. She walked with a stout stick and sat down a lot, but nevertheless carried out a large share of her home's work with competence and energy.

The Gap household, being quite frankly and happily devoted to card-playing, did not retire as early as that of Three Rivers, and they were all about when the dogs announced the arrival of Bert and Tim.