She wondered if Andrew — Banjo — Paterson had ever known the letter hadn’t reached his friend before the wedding. Had Clancy and Banjo Paterson ever met again? There was that other poem, ‘The Man from Snowy River’. It had Clancy in it also.

. . . And Clancy of the Overflow came down to lend a hand

An old man with his hair as white as snow

But few could ride beside him when his blood was fairly up

He’d learned to ride while droving on the plains.

That implied Paterson had known Clancy after he’d married Rose. Had it been in friendship or an accidental meeting? She pulled out her copy of The Man from Snowy River and Other Verses. No! She’d misremembered it. It was Harrison whose hair was as white as snow. But Clancy was still there. ‘Clancy of the Overflow’ was dated 1889, a year after this letter. But though the poem had been published then, a rough draft might have been written years earlier, before the poet’s craft improved and his works began to sell.

‘Did your grandfather and Paterson ever meet again?’

‘If they did, he didn’t tell me. That letter would have hurt. Paterson was famous by then too. If he’d ever come to Overflow, I’d have heard about it, so probably he didn’t. But they might have met in Sydney. I simply don’t know.’

Jed nodded, suddenly longing to get back to her typewriter, which sat on the desk beside the computer Sam had bought for her birthday (and would probably explode if she tried to touch it).

She had her next chapter.

Chapter 56

Chapter 56

Glue (for paper)

Add 4¼oz plain flour to 8½fl oz boiling water. Take off heat. Stir till smooth.

DRINKWATER, OCTOBER 1905

CLANCY

He was Clancy of the Overflow, known in Gibber’s Creek and respected now, even if their social life was still restricted to the families on the property. But it was time for his son to go to school.

The King’s School was impossible, of course, as was any other boarding school — even if they’d accepted a boy of his colour, Clancy hated to think how the other boys would treat him. Nor did he wish to be parted from Benjamin during those vital years when he should be learning country, not just Latin and Ancient Greek.

Benjamin had been reading, writing and doing his numbers for four years now, taught by his parents. Clancy made careful enquiries, riding up to Gibber’s Creek Public School himself after a fat lamb sale in town. Now the drought was ended, the district had enough stock for local sales, without the need to take each mob all the way to Sydney.