now as it would make much matter to me, but such as
my notions is, I shall stick to 'em as long as the craft holds together.
You can bring up the girl in your own way; it's made a good woman of
you, or found you one, which is most likely, and so she may take her
chance. But I stand for Church and King, and so shall the boys, as sure
as my name's Ben Marston.'

Chapter 2

Father was one of those people that gets shut of a deal of trouble in
this world by always sticking to one thing. If he said he'd do this or
that he always did it and nothing else. As for turning him, a wild bull
half-way down a range was a likelier try-on. So nobody ever bothered him
after he'd once opened his mouth. They knew it was so much lost labour.
I sometimes thought Aileen was a bit like him in her way of sticking to
things. But then she was always right, you see.

So that clinched it. Mother gave in like a wise woman, as she was. The
clergyman from Bargo came one day and christened me and Jim--made one
job of it. But mother took Aileen herself in the spring cart all the way
to the township and had her christened in the chapel, in the middle of
the service all right and regular, by Father Roche.

There's good and bad of every sort, and I've met plenty that were no
chop of all churches; but if Father Roche, or Father anybody else, had
any hand in making mother and Aileen half as good as they were, I'd turn
to-morrow, if I ever got out again. I don't suppose it was the religion
that made much difference in our case, for Patsey Daly and his three
brothers, that lived on the creek higher up, were as much on the cross
as men could be, and many a time I've seen them ride to chapel and
attend mass, and look as if they'd never seen a 'clearskin' in their
lives. Patsey was hanged afterwards for bush-ranging and gold robbery,
and he had more than one man's blood to answer for. Now we weren't like
that; we never troubled the church one way or the other. We knew we were
doing what we oughtn't to do, and scorned to look pious and keep two
faces under one hood.

By degrees we all grew older, began to be active and able to do half a
man's work. We learned to ride pretty well--at least, that is we could
ride a bare-backed horse at full gallop through timber or down a range;
could back a colt just caught and have him as quiet as an old cow in
a week. We could use the axe and the cross-cut saw, for father dropped
that sort of work himself, and mad