Explore "An Outback Marriage" by Andrew Barton Paterson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The Court at Ballarook was over, and Gavan Blake turned his horses' / heads in a direction he had never taken before-along the road to / Kuryong. As he drove along, his thoughts were anything but pleasant. / Behind him always stalked the grim spectre of detection and arrest; / and, even should a lucky windfall help to pay his debts, he could not / save the money either to buy a practice in Sydney or to maintain / himself while he was building one up. He thought of the pitiful / smallness of his chances at Tarrong, and then of Ellen Harriott. What / should he do about her? Well, sufficient unto the day was the evil / thereof. He would play for his own hand throughout. With which / reflection he drove into the Kuryong yard.
When he drove up, the family had gathered round the fire in the quaint, / old-fashioned, low-ceiled sitting-room; for the evenings were still / chilly. The children were gravely and quietly sharpening / terrific-looking knives on small stones; the old lady had some / needlework; while Mary and Ellen and Poss and Binjie talked about / horses, that being practically the only subject open to the two boys.