Page:Tom Petrie's reminiscences of early Queensland.djvu/43

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

OF EARLY QUEENSLAND. 17 directions, laden with good things — opossums, carpet snakes, wild turkey eggs, and yams — he would get his share of the best — as much as he could eat. The turkey eggs were about the size of a goose egg, and the fresh ones were taken to the white boy, while addled eggs, or those (let me whisper it) with Chickens in them, were eaten and relished by the blacks, after being roasted in the hot ashes. My father always noticed how open-handed and generous the aborigines were. Some of us would do well to learn from them in that respect. If there were unfortunates who had been unlucky in the hunt for food, it made no differ-ence; they did not go without, but shared equally with, the others.