Jessica Read Online Free PDF Page A

who can manage the work head for the shearing shed at Riverview during the season. George Thomas’s big sheep station carries eleven thousand merinos not counting the two thousand lambs towards the end of the season and the burly squatter takes on fourteen shearers to do the job. He’ll give every local man who applies an hour without pay on the shearing board, each going full swing, to see if he’s up to the tally the foreman’s set for the season.
    George Thomas doesn’t believe in charity and if a local man can’t reach a daily tally expected from a top contract shearer he’s weeded out and sent packing. It’s a popular laugh that by the end of the local trials Thomas has a couple of days’ worth of free shearing to his credit. George Thomas has never been known to do anything where there wasn’t a solid quid in it for him. Joe’s taken young Jessica along with him to the cut, hoping that Mike Malloy the foreman will accept her to be trained as a rouseabout. If she gets the work, it’s another income they’ll be able to rely upon for eight weeks every year.
    The start of the shearing season is always an anxious time for the small farmers who depend on those two months in the big shed to get them through. If George Thomas throws one of them out it’ll mean a lean year for the family. Joe’s never missed the cut, even though he is a good bit older than most of the local men. Now he’s depending on his past record to persuade Mike Malloy to take Jessica on as a tar boy and sweeper, the first job a boy learns coming into a big shed.
    Even though it was four years ago, Jessica can still recall almost everything about that first day. Big, tough old Joe, trying to look at ease, his taut muscles and awkward stance giving away how tense he was, how much he wanted her to succeed, but without him having to beg to get her the job. Standing in front of them was the foreman, a hard-looking man, though a little soft in the stomach and with a complexion scarred from childhood smallpox. His cheeks look purple and pink and raw and sore as he frowns slightly, listening to what Joe has to say. Then his first words: ‘Joe, I dunno, mate, it’s pretty unusual.’ Rubbing the side of his nose with his forefinger, ‘Shearin’ shed ain’t no place for a young girl, the men swearing an’ all.’
    Joe gives a little nervous laugh, at the same time wiping the palms of his sweaty hands down the side of his moleskins. ‘Won’t be nothing she ain’t heard from her old man.’
    The foreman scratches his forehead just under the rim of his hat. ‘It ain’t just her, the men ain’t gunna feel, y’know, free to express themselves. Jeez mate, I dun no,’ he repeats and then glances down at Jessica. ‘She ain’t too big neither.’
    Joe pushes Jessica forward. ‘She’s just a brat yet. She can start as a tar boy, learn the trade. Don’t need size for that, do you? She don’t look no different to a boy and I’ll wager she’ll work harder than all of them little buggers.’
    â€˜Yeah, but—’
    â€˜Mr Malloy, what with the Wolseley engine and the wool press, there’s such a racket going on she won’t hear a flaming word unless they cup their hands and shout it down her earhole. It’s just noise in there. If she does a good job they’ll soon enough forget she’s a girl and if she don’t measure up she’ll get the flick same as anyone else.’ Jessica can sense Joe trying to keep calm, trying not to plead with the foreman. ‘Just give the girlie a chance to prove herself, Mr Malloy.’Mike Malloy looks at Joe. ‘Mate, I’d like to, we’ve worked together a long time, but I don’t think it’s within me authority t’hire a sheila. I’ll need to ask Mr Thomas.’ He frowns, thinking of something else. ‘What about when