Kangaroo / by D.H. Lawrence.

  • D. H. Lawrence
Date:
1923
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Kangaroo / by D.H. Lawrence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    blowing in huge volleys : and the black Cornish nights, with nothing but the violent weather outside. “ Oh, I remember it, I remember it,” said William James. “ Though I was a half-starved youngster on a bit of a farm out there, you know, for everlasting chasing half a dozen heifers from the cliffs, where the beggars wanted to fall over and kill themselves, and hunting for a dozen sheep among the gorse-bushes, and wading up to my knees in mud most part of the year, and then in summer, in the dry times, having to haul water for a mile over the rocks in a wagon, because the well had run dry. And at the end of it my father gave me one new suit in two years, and sixpence a week. Ay, that was a life for you. I suppose if I was there still he’d be giving me my keep and five shillin’ a week—if he could open his heart as wide as two half-crowns, which I’m doubting very much.” “ You have money out here, at least,” said Somers. “ But there was a great fascination for me, in Cornwall.” “ Fascination ! And where do you find the fascination ? In a little Wesleyan chapel of a Sunday night, and a girl with her father waiting for her with a strap if she’s not in by nine o’clock? Fascination, did you say? ” “ It had a great fascination for me—magic—a magic in the atmosphere.” “ All the fairy tales they’ll tell you? ” said William James, looking at the other man with a smile of slow ridicule. “ Why ye didn’t go and believe them, did ye? ” “ More or less. I could more easily have believed them there than anywhere else I’ve been.” “ Ay, no doubt. And that shows what sort of a place it be. Lot of dum silly nonsense.” He stirred on his seat impatiently. “ At any rate, you’re well out of it. You’re set up all right here,” said Somers, who was secretly amused. The other man did not answer for some time. “ Maybe I am,” he said at last. “ I’m not pining to go back and work for my father, I tell you, on a couple of pasties and a lot of abuse. No, after that, I’d like you to tell me what’s wrong with Australia.” “ I’m sure I don’t know,” said Somers. “ Probably nothing at all.” Again William James was silent. He was a short, thick
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