【荆棘鸟】第二章 21

Doubt in her eyes, she turned then to Frank. Ought I to shave it? she asked, tight-upped. Frank put out his hand, revolted. Oh, Mum, no! Surely not! If she gets a good douse of kerosene it ought to be enough. Please don't shave it! So Meggie was marc

【荆棘鸟】第一章 11

Well, it would have to wait until the morning, when no doubt the pillow would be wet, too. He always did that, reversed himself and then wet once more.Well, one bedwetter among five boys wasn't bad. Meggie was curled into a little heap, with her thum

【荆棘鸟】第二章 01

When the Clearys went to church on Sundays, Meggie had to stay home with one of the older boys, longing for the day when she, too, would be old enough to go. Padraic Cleary held that small children had no place in any house save their own, and his ru

【荆棘鸟】第二章 02

The year was 1787. His fleet of eleven ships held over one thousand convicts, plus sailors, naval officers and a contingent of marines. No glorious odyssey in search of freedom, this. At the end of January 1788, eight months after setting sail from E

【荆棘鸟】第二章 03

Roderick Armstrong could no more have gone off into his escape leaving his tormentors intact or quickly dead than he could have reconciled himself to being a convict. With the rum and bread and jerky they took from the troopers, the eleven men fought

【荆棘鸟】第二章 04

Behave yourself, and mind your brothers. Bob, Jack, Hughie and Stu were hopping up and down by the front gate when Fee finally pushed Meggie out the door, her luncheon jam sandwiches in an old satchel. Come on, Meggie, we'll be late! Bob shouted, mov

【荆棘鸟】第二章 05

The general store was the next-biggest building, also boasting a sheltering awning, and two long wooden benches under its cluttered windows for passersby to rest upon. There was a flagpole in front of the Masonic hall; from its top a tattered Union J

【荆棘鸟】第二章 06

The sight was truly extraordinary; three dabs of person, which were Sister Agatha's face and hands, the rest white starched wimple and bib glaring against layers of blackest black, with a massive rope of wooden rosary beads dangling from an iron ring

【荆棘鸟】第一章 05

he picked up a curland pulled it out straight, then let it go, just to see it jiggle and bounce as it settled back into place. Picking the child up, he went to sit in the only comfortable chair the kitchen possessed, a Windsor chair with a cushion ti

【荆棘鸟】第一章 01

1915-1917 MEGGIE 1 On December 8th, 1915, Meggie Cleary had her fourth birthday.After the breakfast dishes were put away her mother silently thrust a brown paper parcel into her arms and ordered her outside. So Meggie squatted down behind the gorse b

【荆棘鸟】第一章 02

The doll's golden hair tumbled down, the pearls flew winking into the long grass and disappeared. A dusty boot came down thoughtlessly on the abandoned dress, smearing grease from the smithy across its satin. Meggie dropped to her knees, scrabbling f

【荆棘鸟】第一章 03

She was yanking inexpertly ata large knot when the dreadful thing happened. Off came the hair, all of it,dangling in a tousled clump from the teeth of the comb. Above Agnes's smooth broad brow there was nothing; no head, no bald skull. Just an awful

【荆棘鸟】第一章 04

Let me see. Fee held out her handfor the doll. She was a silent woman, not given to spontaneous conversation.What she thought, no one ever knew, even her husband; she left the disciplining of the children to him, and did whatever he commanded without

【荆棘鸟】第一章 06

His nose was magnificent, a true Roman nose which must have puzzled his Irish confreres, but Ireland has ever been a shipwreck coast. He still spoke with the soft quick slur of the Gal- way Irish, pronouncing his final t's as this's, but almost twent

【荆棘鸟】第一章 07

After Fee had poured everyone a cup of tea from her giant pot, they stayed talking, drinking or reading for an hour or more, Paddy puffing on his pipe with his head in a library book, Fee continuously refilling cups, Bob immersed in another library b

【荆棘鸟】第一章 08

for the most stringent rule in Paddy's domain concerned the proper delegation ofduties. The house was woman's work, and that was that. No male member of thefamily was to put his hand to a female task. But each night after Paddy went tobed Frank helpe

【荆棘鸟】第一章 09

Frank shrugged and said no more. The dishes were all put away; Fee got out her sewing basket and sat down in Paddy's chair by the fire, while Frank went back to the doll. Poor little Meggie! he said suddenly. Why? Today, when those wretched chaps wer

【荆棘鸟】第一章 10

She picked up a small lamp from the table, then put it down again and walked across to where Frank was squatted before the stove, packing wood into the big firebox and fiddling with the damper. His white arm was roped with prominent veins, his finely

【荆棘鸟】第九章 02

Behind them Tom, the garden rouseabout, finished filling thebig water truck from the bore-drain pump, then started the engine.Not that any amount of water short of a downpour from the skywould help put out a fire this big, but he would be needed to k

【荆棘鸟】第九章 01

But it was 1930, and Drogheda knew all about the Depression.Men were out of work all over Australia. Those who could stoppedpaying rent and tying themselves down to the futility of lookingfor work when there was none. Left to fend alone, wives and ch