BUSH BOY'S PLUCK

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 126, 24 November 1923, Page 13

BUSH BOY'S PLUCK

CARRYING ON ALONE

AFTER FATHER'S DEATH.

(WOK OCR OWN COSRIIKINDHIT/)

SYDNEY, 15th November.

The story of a boy's pluck in a lonely part of the bush far from any other human habitation was revealed in a curious -way last week. A party of Parliamentarians were making their way .by motor-car to a distant-settlement-for the purpose of inquiring into a. developmental project, when, in a small clearing just off the rough track, they, came, upon a small galvanised iron hut. Nobody passes a habitation in "outback" Australia without stopping for a yarn with the lonely settlers, and the memories of such little interchanges form the subject of conversation icj days in the little circles struggling b,«vay.'on their own to establish farms in the back country. So the party pulled.up and knocked at-the door. It was answered, by a boy of 14 years, who was very shy in the presence of the strangers; but they soon gained his confidence, and learned how for some years the boy had been the only companion of his widowed father, a settler by the name of M'Lernon, and together they had gradually increased- their small herd of cattle and improved their farm, till one day the father fell ill, and the boy fetched aid from the nearest-neigh-bour, forty miles away. All' efforts \to save .;the man failed, and the boy • was left alone after-a simple burial: in the bush. He determined -to carry on the work that he had done by the ,sjde of his father, and when the party'went round the. farm they found nothing neglected. Development.had gone on .to the utmost permitted by the strength of the boy working from dawn till dark. When asked why, he had., not'left he seemed astonished, and asked how. he could leave when there were cattle to be watered. In spite of the solitary life, relieved only by an occasional mailman and a ■ much .more occasional passerby, young M'Lefnon was bright and cheerful, and all around were evidences of his resourcefulness in carrying on the work single-handed. The boy declined an offer to go on with'- the party, because he could not-leave without something being done for the. stock, but he was promised by the members that something would be done for him. -So he stayed on, and the party, on reaching Perth, placed the .circumstances before an association which exists for the encouragement and assistance of settlers. The upshot was. that provision, is being made to enable the boy to realise his assets to the best advantage, while his lot will be transferred to more pleasant places. ' ' . '