Explore "Up the Country: A Saga of Pioneering Days" by Miles Franklin on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
The high point of the trial was when Bert entered the witness box. Ushered to the box with the deference extended to conquerors, his sensation of discomfiture exceeded that of exultation as he found himself the focus of all eyes. His dark, sunburned skin hiding his blushes, for a moment everything seemed a blur but then he found one little face, its starry eyes fixed on him--and life, so sweet, so fraught with pain, became grand in that moment.
He gave his name as "Herbert Poole", his age as "twenty-five, his residence as "Curradoobidgee, Maneroo". While he was no philosopher and had not consciously thought about the narrow chance that had put convict weals on poor old Logan's back while his own, stripped, was a sight to make a sculptor cheer, some such awareness touched 'his easygoing consciousness with regret as he was called upon to identify the men in the dock. He was glad, at that moment, that Erroll had escaped with Cane.