Jessica Quotes
"This is country to make hard men whimper and bite their knuckles in their sleep."
"It is a place where the heat is so severe birds lose their strength to fly and drop like stones from the breathless air."
"Monotony and stoicism are constant companions, imagination a bad habit to be quickly stamped out."
"The worn cardboard casings with their reseated copper crowns are filled so that the birdshot will effectively spray in a three-foot arc at a distance of twenty feet."
"A bite from an Eastern brown and she’s dead as a doorknob in less than an hour, no risk."
"If you ask me, she’s too clever for her own good."
"‘God is not mocked,’ she will say after rejecting a name put forward on the church charity list."
"Money, Jessica has discovered, is a clever way to conceal stupidity and meanness in people’s personalities."
"‘Poor bastards, all ribs and prick, like a drover’s dog,’ Joe said."
"‘You mean people who are starving don’t care!’ she’d protested."
"Being poor is like the drought: when the rains come and the paddocks are up to a sheep’s belly in green grass, remember that the mud is only wet dust waiting to dry out."
"You can’t have a go at him, can’t square with him, or punch him, can’t expect justice when he’s done the wrong thing by you, because, as sure as God made little green apples, you’re gunna have to go cap in hand to him one of these flamin’ days."
"If yiz wants a good husband, girlie, yiz’ll have to learn to act stupid and buckle under."
"A hard-working and sober husband of humble origins is better than a drunken lord in a grand palace."
"I reckon she’s never forgiven Billy for running away when she ordered him to fire the shotgun at the Aborigines."
"No matter what happened next it couldn’t be put back again, Jessica resolved to take whatever punishment she had coming from her mother."
"If she’s up to the job, then she wants to be treated as an equal. If she fails, then she’s prepared to cop whatever’s coming to her and learn from the experience."
"She’s simply a much needed extra pair of hands, though perhaps a little on the small side – a flyweight, he calls her."
"Joe knows that Jessie can talk the hind leg off a donkey if she’s in the mood or is excited by something new she’s seen or learned."
"Life was hard enough, my friend. She bore you six children in life and never complained, surely a little comfort in death wouldn’t go astray."
"The last carriage taking the dearly departed to the Kingdom of Heaven. We don’t want them angels opening the lid to bare boards and austerity now, does we?"
"You got Buckley’s of making a head shot with a rifle, even if it’s a repeater."
"Give them half a chance and they’d rob the wax from your ears and sell it back to you as altar candles!"
"It’s our only chance, mate. I’m bloody not givin’ up now!"
"Good boy, Billy. Now you hang on. Don’t let go, no matter what. Don’t let go, Billy!"
"Hang on, Billy! Never mind that, just bloody hang on, will ya!"
"Billy, please try, try for me, your friend Jessie. You must try, we have to get going."
"The judge let the woman in Sydney off, but the newspaper didn’t say if she’d had the dead man’s baby."
"But if they do stay the night on the far shore and cross at daylight, then, with a fair amount of luck, she and Billy should be no more than four hours away from Narrandera and the mob won’t catch her."
"You’re all right, Billy, you’re my responsibility."
"We still can’t take the chance of telling Jack about Jessica, not in the next three days anyway."
"It’s Jack’s child with Meg who needs to be protected."
"I’ve heard of them backyard doings, knitting needles and bits o’ fencing wire to hook it out."
"We could keep her in the house and when folk ask where she is we could say she’s had one o’ them nervous breakdowns."
"Joe, she’s not right in the head. Don’t you see?"
"She’d be better off in her grave, and the child with her!"
"Well, if it’s about all of us, then we stick together."
"I pray that Meg ain’t pregnant to Jack Thomas – that what you done isn’t forever on our conscience."
"He knows you took her in to see him and that she wasn’t well."
"Father, I may never see Jack again! Can’t I just say goodbye?"
"Jack, I am so happy. I do so want your child."
"Trooper Thomas admits readily enough to having had sexual congress on a single occasion with your daughter."
"You heard me the first time, I will not repeat myself."
"No good will come from the hate she feels for her mother and sister."
"All that matters is her baby, and her need to nourish the fierce and wonderful love for the child that breathes within her."
"Jessica will make no plans until she can carry this precious and unexpected gift in her arms and suckle it at her small breasts."
"Jessica feels the womanliness in her come to life like a great, surging force, a power she has never felt in herself before."
"Jessica turns away from her mother. Her heart is a rush of terrible sadness and anger."
"Joe tries to grin but it comes out more as a grimace and Jessica can feel his pain."
"Jessica, who has often enough been lonely, suddenly knows herself now to be utterly alone in the world."
"Joe, standing beside the sulky with the two old cardboard and twine-bound suitcases at his feet, witnesses it all."
"Jessica spends the next morning doing her usual Sunday chores until shortly past noon, when she sees the sulky approaching across the saltbush plain."
"Jessica is completely unaware of her mother’s true reason for inviting old Mrs Baker."
"Jessica hears the scream and comes running into the kitchen from her room."
"Jessica glances downwards and, suddenly aware of her state of undress, she gasps."
"Joe rises slowly from the kitchen table and walks over to stand in the doorway of Meg’s bedroom."
"Jessica, returning from milking the cows and feeding the pigs, enters the kitchen."
"Jessica spends the better part of the day with him and by its end her hands are red and puffed."
"Jessica tells herself that no good will come from dwelling on the past."
"Stubborn Jessica, with her flat chest, blunt, broken nails, and carelessly cropped hair, stays determined."
"Jessica feels a sense of dread but also a strange relief as she confronts her future."
"Jessica’s laughter in the face of adversity shows her resilient spirit."
"Jessica’s resolve to protect her unborn child at all costs highlights her maternal instinct."
"The juxtaposition of Jessica’s strength and vulnerability paints a complex portrait of her character."
"In the silence of her solitude, Jessica finds a profound strength within herself."
"Jessica’s journey from despair to determination underscores her character development."
"The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away, blessed is the Lord."
"She would sit with a patient for hours, simply holding a trembling hand, sometimes making soothing noises, sometimes singing softly and rocking them."
"Joe always said there's nothing more stupid than a chook unless it's a turkey."
"A man going to war does not leave a wife behind to mourn him should he die."
"If you were a chicken I send you to the fat farm."
"A kosher chicken is already blessed one hundred per cent."
"You think that's crazy? From chicken shoppers I got lotsa stories much worse."
"Being good at being a Jew is impossible, my dear. If you come even close it's a miracle from God."
"Everything means something in nature. Everything has a purpose in the bush."
"To talk is to be a human. To be a proper person."
"You must be patient, dear, we are not a big library."
"If something should happen to me I want you to know that I love you."
"To cry is good. To laugh is wonderful. Sometimes also we are silent, to be silent is necessary."
"I shall go now, proud to have been reacquainted with you, my dear. You are, Jessica, a remarkable young woman."
"A mother's love is a fortune far greater than any other."
"What can I do? I can’t cut up for him this pig, I’m a Jew."
"We Jews, we have a saying, 'To live and talk is the best revenge.'"
"It is the bird life at sunset that she has missed the most, this squawking and carry-on to announce the end of the hot day and the beginning of the night."
"The anticipation of a wash at the well, yellow lantern light in the kitchen window, cooking smells and the soft look of the bush in the gathering dusk."
"Every surface is covered in dust and there are bird droppings on the table – most likely an owl, Jessica thinks, come in after mice."
"The fleshy fruit is sharp and tart and then sweet at the centre."
"Jessica realises how, of all the sounds of the bush, it is the bird life at sunset that she has missed the most."
"Hester and Meg have assumed the role previously held by Ada Thomas and her two daughters and have become the local bullies."
"Jessica has a reputation for going around with the blacks, of being seen from time to time with Aboriginal women."
"Jessica loves Mary’s children and they adore her."