recognizing the futility of making any fuss about so every-day an occurrence, forgave the delinquents, but instead of inviting them to take up the residence under the parental roof, they permitted their newly-acquired son-in-law, who was an expert bush-carpenter, to erect a dwelling for himself and wife on a portion of their land.
Here, in the snug little hut, the young couple resided until the breaking out of the diggings, the husband pursuing his adopted calling of splitter and fencer.
Ellen Kelly (nee Quin)
CHAPTER II
“What is here?
Gold-yellow, glittering, precious gold.”
- Shakespeare
At length, yielding, as thousands of others did at that time and afterwards, to the temptations held out by the golden visions which the highly-coloured reports from the Australian El Dorado conjured up before his imagination, Kelly proceeded to try his luck on the fields where fortune was said to smile upon all, showering riches particularly on those who sued for her favours pick in hand.
Bendigo was the stage upon which he made his debut in the character of a gold-digger, and there, in a short space of time, his anticipations were realised to a sufficiently satisfactory extent to justify his return home.
After coming back, he for some time dealt in horses, which soon increased his original “pile” enough to allow of his purchasing a comfortable farm at Beveridge. He remained here for a number of years, but eventually sold out and removed to a farm which he rented between Avenel and Tabilk. He chose this locality in preference to taking up his residence in more unsettled parts, where he could have secured better land on more advantageous terms, because it supplied the necessity of propinquity to a public school, and Kelly was most solicitous that his children should enjoy the benefit of some place of instruction.
At this place the head of the family died, leaving issue three sons, namely – Edward and Daniel (the outlaws); and James, who is undergoing a sentence of stealing some horses, which he afterwards sold to Mr. Dixon, of Wangaratta; and three daughters – one married to Alexander Gunn, and since deceased; one married to William Skillion, now in jail on a conviction of being concerned in an assault on a constable; and one, Kate, the youngest, still single.
Some eleven or twelve years ago, the Kellys gave up the Avenel farm, and removed to a piece of land on the Eleven-Mile Creek, about four miles from Greta township, where they built a small house, which was kept as a shanty or house of accommodation. At the time of leaving Avenel the sons were aged as follows:– Edward about 12, James 9, and Daniel 6 or 7; and since that time, as soon as they were old enough, the ostensible occupations of the two elder sons have been horse-breaking and farm and station work, while the youngest one generally assisted his mother and sister at home – all of them occasionally indulging in horse-dealing and swapping. It is a significant fact, that although according to various public journals and the statements of several private individuals this place, its occupants, and its visitors were of exceptionally evil repute, yet there is absolutely no record whatever of any stolen property having been traced to its precincts, nor have any instances of what is known as “lambing down”, such as have founded and helped to build the fortunes of some men now in good and reputable positions, been brought to light in connection with the establishment.
There is little doubt that Morgan, Power, and other desperadoes may have made it a house of call in their excursions, as they did many other out-of-the-way shanties; but so, also, did many harmless travellers in journeying through that district, as well as sundry of that numerous class whole claim to respectability is chiefly based upon the fact of their never having been found out in the perpetration of any nefarious fact. But this affords not the slightest excuse for the sheltering of marauders, cattle-reevers, and highwaymen by the owners of the shanty, nor can it be reasonably imagined that they could have harboured these abominable plunderers and malefactors – if they did so – without, to a certain extent, sympathizing and approving of their lawless acts; unless, indeed, the proprietors were under the tyranny of a similar terrorism to that which has since been attributed to the Kellys in their bushranging career, and which, if true, may possibly have been suggested to those notorious outlaws by the example of the older offenders.
As, however, we have no sufficient proof to guide out judgment in the matter, we must be content to record the rumours and facts at our disposal, leaving our readers to form their own conclusions.
CHAPTER III
“Small habits, well pursued, betimes
May reach the dignity of crimes.”
– Butler
The published assertion that the younger Kellys were brought up as thieves by their father is altogether without foundation in fact, whatever boyish depredations they may have indulged in having been carried out on their “own hook”, and without the concurrence of their parents.
Some of the stories that have been circulated since their entry upon a career of murder and robbery, purportion to illustrative of their juvenile escapades, are not only, as far as we can learn by inquiry, totally unsustainable by any kind of evidence, but many of them amusingly incredible in their details.
One selection will amply serve as an average example of the ridiculous and contemptible rubbish they are composed of. It is, in outline, as follows, and the minor details may be made to vary according to the fancy or inventive capacity of each retailer of the anecdote:–
In the outskirts of a village not a hundred miles from Avenel, through which the younger Kellys, when boys, were in the habit of passing, there dwelt – in a humble cottage – neatly furnished, and situated in a nice little orchard – an elderly widowed female with an only son, who, though she had a comfortable little income secured to her, sufficient for the ordinary wants of a person in her station, yet felt like the old woman in the almshouse, who, while admitting to the visiting clergyman the many mercies, including tea and snuff, she had to thank Heaven for, qualified her expression of gratitude by declaring that the Lord took it out of herin corns.
Now, the dame in our story suffered a counterpoise to her blessings in the shape of a chronic rheumatism, and – jointly with her young hopeful, who was an embryo shoemaker with a club foot – a constant dread that the larrikins and larrikinesses of the neighbourhood would make a ride upon her garden, to the loss of the
Nectarine fruits which the compliant boughs
Yielded them, sidelong, as they sat
and by the sale of which she was wont to supplement her modest revenue, and thus was enabled, not only to put by a penny for a rainy day, but also to indulge in sundry extras of feminine adornment as well as table comforts, otherwise beyond her reach. For age could not altogether wither her vanity, nor custom stale the infinite variety her palate craved continually.
She might have made a much better market of her produce than she did, had she but established, as she was often advised, a little fruit stall in the village, on the borders of which she hung; but, alas! her rheumatism and, above all, her conceit, forbade her presiding over so unassuming a Temple of Pomons, and her son, though even more grasping than his ma, also permitted his vanity to overcome his avarice in a similar manner, and indignantly refused all entreaties to become what he flippantly designated “book-keeper to an apple-stand”. As to engaging a regular “fruiterer’s assistant” on a small scale, it was altogether out of the question, because they believed, not only that the legitimate expenses would
