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Back The Scent of Eucalyptus Save as PDF
Chapters (36)
  1. Cover
  2. Author biography
  3. Other books by Barbara Hanrahan
  4. Title page
  5. Dedication and Epigraph
  6. One
  7. Two
  8. Three
  9. Four
  10. Five
  11. Six
  12. Seven
  13. Eight
  14. Nine
  15. Ten
  16. Eleven
  17. Twelve
  18. Thirteen
  19. Fourteen
  20. Fifteen
  21. Sixteen
  22. Seventeen
  23. Eighteen
  24. Nineteen
  25. Twenty
  26. Twenty-One
  27. Twenty-Two
  28. Twenty-Three
  29. Twenty-Four
  30. Twenty-Five
  31. Twenty-Six
  32. Twenty-Seven
  33. Twenty-Eight
  34. Twenty-Nine
  35. Thirty
  36. Imprint page

And we hear the bell and have to stop skippy and Miss Monk comes and blows the whistle and hurry, because she hits. She has a stick and fall in and left-right into school and you try and see the boys, but too far. And through the cloakroom and past old Goodman’s room (Mrs. Caire is his girl friend) and then into the room and it’s big and all khaki, with desks the colour of toffee, but scratched all over with names and initials you can’t quite see. Mine has a flag on it too, and a big-nose face, and a map of Australia that didn’t come out right, and lots of ink blots. And when we get in we stand up straight and say Good Morning, Miss Monk, and she answers and we all sit down, then calls the roll and we say Present, Miss Monk. And out the window is the Beach Road and you can hear the cars and the trams very loud, even though there is a garden, but the things don’t grow very well, and see the men from the second-hand shop and the lady from the Blue Shop coming with her trolley and the pasties for the Tech girls (that means it’s nearly recess) and up further Vanity Fayre Hair Beauty, where they burnt my mother’s hair. I sit by the window so I see it all, but once I ate a stickjaw and she asked me to read and I had it in my mouth — found me out, and now hold out your hand.

And if it was February there were the interminable lists of books.

We have the book lists and trips to the Book Room and come to school with florins in a green pound note or in your hanky or even in a tin. And can watch the ones who are poor and cannot afford it and they get called out and into trouble. What a shame. I love the chalky smell of the new books — blank books are red the colour of rust and line books blue and dear little memo and drawing book (I’m the best) and pastel book like fur with tissue-paper in between but I don’t like the arithmetic or the geography. I like the reader and the history.

And if it was February, Miss Monk, as graciously as that other virgin ruler ever did, dispensed her patronage — created her monitors. There were monitors for flowers and tea and ink and books and blackboard and library and fire and windows.