Up the Country: A Saga of Pioneering Days

Labosseer took an almost fatherly pride in his bride's delight in the gas-lit streets and fine shops of Sydney, and was liberal about the purchases she made for her family and friends. He was proud of the impression her beauty and spirited bearing made on his friends of the Sydney social elite, and numbers of them promised to visit Rachel as soon as she was settled at Eueurunda, her new home.

Her husband was taking her to no rude bark hut, but a home much like her girlhood one, and with even more amenities. The main dwelling was built of stone, with one or two architectural features of Labosseer's own country. Instead of the usual bull-run passage, a distinguishing feature of colonial dwellings even to this day, there was a decent-sized square hall, off which opened doors and passages, and there were cupboards and shelves to delight any housekeeper. Every room was papered with real wallpaper, there was a full drawing-room suite, and many imported pieces of furniture for the other rooms, including writing desks, bookcases and a sideboard. There were Brussels carpets, real lace curtains, silver candlesticks and, to Rachel's delight, three further surprises, acquisitions that had set the whole neighbourhood agog. The first was a piano, a sweet-toned Broadwood of solid rosewood. It had originally been the gift of a rich London merchant to his only child who, after marrying a wastrel, eventually ended up, husband, furniture and all, in the colonies. Later the wife had been glad to dispose of the piano in order to procure food and clothes. The second surprise was a vehicle, Rachel's very own and the first approach to a carriage in the district. The third was a companion, selected with great care, so that Rachel should not be lonely. Labosseer hoped Mrs Millburn, for that was her name, might also be something of a governess and teach his wife the piano, but in this he was rather failing to take into account the demands of the incessant child-bearing of that generation.