Excerpt from 'THE CLOCK OF TIME" by Gertrude Ruston. (pp 87-88)
"We always had our own chickens and a few ducks. It was amusing to see the Indian Runner ducks follow one another down to the water when they were let out in the morning and return the same way each night. We had to watch out for goannas as they were always after the eggs.
One of the ducks, that I called Jane, insisted on getting over the garden fence and I was always chasing her. When Peg could toddle around and started to talk she also chased Jane, and we were horrified to hear her use some of Tim Healy's picturesque adjectives, in quite the right places, when describing the duck. Tim received a severe final warning regarding his language and I must admit he thereafter did try to moderate it.
We often saw beautiful black possums and had to chase them away from our seed potatoes which were spread out on racks under the pine trees, where they hardened, turned green, and produced shoots ready for planting the next crop.
The true name of these attractive animals is oppossum, and they are protected under law to prevent them being killed for their beautiful skins. They are nocturnal in habit.
As one time we found a small possum in the shed and made a pet of it, giving it saucers of milk and various titbits. First of all she lived in the rafters of the shed, but she gradually followed us down to the house and would disappear in the daytime. Eventually we found her sleeping in the curtain pelmet.
When she came out at night "Possie", as we called her, wandered around ready to climb anything that was handy, including out legs if we were not careful. She would stick her claws out to support herself and my young home help and I could often be seen sitting with our feet up on another chair in self preservation. In the end Possie disappeared and we assumed she had joined her own kind in the bush."
That was just a short interlude before the next dramatic part of the story takes place.
