BEHIND THE BEYOND

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 32 (Supplement)

BEHIND THE BEYOND

THE "COCKIES" COME TO TOWN ENJOYING A WEEK-END FLING TRIBUTE TO COUNTRY COURAGE BY tTN'A AULD They arrived for the night from a cummer school, where they had been tinder canvas tor a week. TIIO back of the car held a miniature Leaning Tower of Pisa of luggage, as well mixed as the contents of a plum pudding. A melting cake of chocolate had dripped into a shoe, the contents of an overstuffed suitcase had burst over the floor and a bag of blackballs, sticky with heat, stuck like limpets to the crown of an old felt hat. The second suitcase, of course, was underneath everything else, and to get at it we shifted the chocolate, the shoe, the blackballs, the hat, an enamel washbasin, a bulging canvas bag, a rusty spirit stove and a collection of pots and pans. Mr. A, looking like an archaeologist in the -tomb of an Egyptian king, seized the case, dumped the canvas bag on the floor of the car, threw everything else on top of it—and promptly had to shift it all again to find the mate to Mrs. A's be-chocolated shoo. The Spirit of the " Way-backs " Those shoes might well have daunted any " townie's " heart. Chocolate was thick on one and mud was thick on both, for it had rained solidly for two days at the' camp; but Mrs. A was not perturbed; neither was Mr AA. They had the happy knack of seeing the bright side of things. Perhaps their long years of service on a " way-back " farm had helped'them to cultivate that spirit. They had 'started married life in the " back o' beyond," shut in by hills and rivers from civilisation, but they had not minded till the children came. Then, as they both had keen and intelligent minds, they determined that their kiddies should have a chance. To give them' that chance they sold tho way-back farm and took up another, less isolated. It was a business getting the five youngsters off on their ponies for the long ride each morning, but it was worth it, they thought, for at least there was a school at the end of it. Three years previously the businesslike and unsentimental institution that controlled his destiny had put the screw on Mr. A and had made him manager of the property he had bought with such high hopes seven years before. He was quite philosophical about it. After all, most of his neighbours and friends were in the . same box, having had to surrender the keys of ownership and take on the yoke of servitude instead. Still, they grumbled very little about it; it was pretty lucky, they thought, that they had even managerships. Lots of poor beggars* did not get even that consolation, but quietly walked off the land into which they had put years of back-breaking labour. So Mr. A did not squeal when his bad luck came, though he did not quite like being told just how much his "family should spend on groceries each month. A Lotus-like Existence!

The only time when he really rebelled was when he was told that to cut down his expenses Mrs. A would have to go into the milking shed. With five children to look after, he considered his wife' had enough to do inside the house, without adding to her labours by working in the shed. So forcible was he about it that his vehement refusal was accepted, and Mrs. A continued to lead a lotus-like existence of sewing, cooking, cleaning, teaching and loving five lusty young colonials! There was never any money for amusements, such as town kiddies take for granted, even if they had been able to go into the township for them. But there were always laughter and fun when " Mum was about. Her home, in fact, was usually full of children, other people's, as well as her own. They walked for miles to join the swimming picnics she got up for them on hot days. Food was plentiful enough,'for bread was easily made; so was butter, and there was always water- , cress to be picked from the cool transparency of the river, and flax to boil the billy with and milk to drink in abundance. Watching those, sturdy, sunburned bodies and brown laughing faces, Mrs. A did not think the time '' » wasted " in taking the children out. She did not think it marvellous that they made their fun without expensive toys and never suffered from boredom, for she had lived too long in the country and was too inentally not to realise that natural joys are best for childhood. It'sAH in the Point of View " In the meantime, here she was in v town for a whole rare week-end's dissipation with her husband, the children being at home in the care of a neighbour. They came to the theatre in unconventional attire —he in the one suit he possessed, an open-necked shirt and sandshoes; she. in cheap cotton stockings, a cotton frock, her hair not "set' or " permed," but her figure girlish and her face, in spite of its grey hair, alive and eager. I was inclined to be critical, but Mrs. A squeezed the juice from every minute.When they left the next evening the veteran car looked as though it wero held together by will power more than anything else, but it started off gamely with an asthmatic chug-chug. Down the road and into the country it took tho pair—back to the house that was almost falling down for want of repair and paint, to the farm, where they wero little more than labourers, to the yearin, year-o«t grind in the house and on the land, ~, ~ ~ Most il towriies " would have thought their life unbearable. They could not have understood Mrs. A's outburst the previous day, when, as wo were walking down a typical suburban street, packed with its rows of neat little bungalows, she had looked round as though stifled and cried: "How can people bear to live like this? I'd sooner live in a tent in the open all my life!" I almost heard the bungalows cry out in horror: " What? Away from the talkies? From the shops ? From everything that makes life worth living? Ugh!"