THE first question the Indian hawkers would ask, "Where Boss, Missy?" Mother would say "Just over there in the bush, cutting timber".

We had a stumpy tail dog named Nip, and I can remember one day an Indian called at our house. Mother said "I don't want anything", and she went out the door. When he tried to prevent her she gave him a push in the chest and sang out to Nip. It wasn't a second before Nip had him by the stern of the pants, and the yell of that Indian could be heard for miles around. His name was Hollyhawk.

That same afternoon while he was on the road to Cathcart a man named Tom Bourke met Hollyhawk and told him he had a rich old aunt who would buy a lot of his goods and he would show him where she lived. He lured him about a mile off the road into the bush and felled him with a stone, took his money and some goods. Thinking he was dead he came to our place and gave the five of us two shillings each. Mother became suspicious, and sent me to a neighbour to come to our house, which she did. Bourke walked off the next day.

The Indian crawled down to people's place named Overend, and they informed the police. They were soon on Tom's trail, and called at our place gathering information.

I remember digging a hole near a honeysuckle tree and burying the two bob. As far as I know it is still there, so if anyone finds an ancient two bob piece and reads this they will know where it originated from.

It wasn't long before Bourke was arrested and the Indian asked to identify him. He was tried in Bombala and sentenced to six years hard labour for attempted murder.

The early stages of one's life drives by without ever dreaming of responsibilities. There seems to be a period in the history of everyone when the fair aspect of this world is darkened, when everything, past, present of future, assumes a hue of the deepest gloom.

One thing, I never tried to paint today's blue sky with tomorrow's dark clouds.

"Life is very pleasant while everything rolls along like a song, But the man worthwhile is the man who can smile, When everything goes dead wrong."