and half-sovs., for foot races, etc.; leading
spirit for the scrub district in electioneering campaigns--they went
as right as men could go in the politics of those days who watched and
went the way Jack Denver went; header of subscription lists for
burnt-out, flooded-out, sick, hurt, dead or killed or otherwise
knocked-out selectors and others, or their families; barracker and
agitator for new provisional schools, assister of his Reverence and
little bush chapels, friend of all manner of wanderers--careless,
good-hearted scamps in trouble, broken-hearted new chums, wrecks and
failures and outcasts of any colour or creed, and especially of old
King Jimmy and the swiftly vanishing remnant of his tribe. His big
slab-and-shingle and brick-floored kitchen, with its skillions, built
on more generous plans and specifications than even the house itself,
was the wanderer's goal and home in bad weather. And--yes, owner, on
a small scale, of racehorses, and a keen sportsman.
Jack Denver and Big Ben Duggan were boys together on the old
selections, and at the new provisional bark school at Pipeclay; they
went into the Great North-West together "where all the rovers
go"--stock-riding and droving and overlanding, and came back after a
few years bronzed and seasoned and with wild yarns.
Jack married and settled down on a small run his father had bought
near Talbragar, and his generous family of tall, straight bush boys
and tall, straight bush girls grew up and had their sweethearts.
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