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by experiences in his early life, this austere treatment made Mathes forever on his guard, stern, secretive and possessive. Aunt Giscelia recalled that Mathes also suffered at school. Being bigger and older, Giscelia walked him home to protect him from the bullying of the older boys. Small for his age and with a heavy German accent, he was fair game to the Australian lads who lay in wait for him as he made his way home from school.
    Until Aunt Giscelia offered protection, the local non-German lads made his life a misery by calling him ‘sissy’, ‘cry-baby’, ‘midget’ and, like many Germans, ‘kraut’ after sauerkraut, the cabbage dish and staple diet of German families. Aunt Giscelia believed he should have made friends with other German lads, but as he hadn’t he eventually fought his own battles.
    Uncle Herman thought it was unhealthy for a boy to have few or no friends to play with. No one realised that as Mathes was required to work each day after school and on Saturday mornings for Herman in the family general store, it left Mathes not only overworked but with little time to form friendships. Herman made sure that Mathes was involved in the local Lutheran church, not just as part of the congregation, but doing odd jobs for the pastor. This responsibility gave him confidence and respect from the pastor and his little band of helpers, the handymen, the cleaners and the women who did the flowers. Mathes took pride in his role of caring for the church. All may have continued smoothly but for the night a gang of bully-boys broke into the church, smashing vases and violating the sacred place. The fourteen-year-old Mathes was blamed for not locking the main door and lost his voluntary role at the church, bringing him shame and humiliation. Herman knew how particular Mathes was about locking up the church and he didn’t like to see him suffer from the cowardly act of others. He devised a plan, telling Mathes, ‘Don’t worry, lad, we’ll catch them at their own game. It’s the harvest festival next week and I believe those hooligans will be back to pinch the offerings. You and I will spread about town the kind of offerings that will be on show in the church, and make it the best display yet. They won’t be able to resist, and we’ll be ready for them.’
    Herman told Mathes that he was going to arrange a special surprise for the boys. He arranged a display of wheat sheaves around the base of a large circular table which had a cane basket filled with hundreds of brightly painted boiled eggs as a centrepiece. He believed these boys who liked to make as much mess as possible would head first to the highly decorated eggs and have fun throwing them about the church.
    Herman told no one of the plan other than Mathes. The pastor would never allow the use of a cruel trap in his church. Herman made sure he was last to leave church that Friday evening when members of the congregation met to arrange the harvest festival display. When the display was completed and they began leaving the church, Herman lingered. As the little group of helpers passed through the door Herman slipped a large dingo trap from his sack. He quickly set the murderous trap and shoved it beneath a thick layer of straw under the display table, believing that catching the vandals was worth the risk.
    When Herman and Mathes returned early in the morning before the others they were alarmed at what they found. The door had been left open but fortunately the display was intact and no damage had been done in the church. But many of the wheat stalks were soaked in blood and had to be replaced. Herman was worried about the degree of injury.
    No one told the true story, it would amount to a confession of ransacking the church. The boy caught in the cruel trap lied to his parents after he hobbled home with his friends, saying he had been caught in a trap laid in a creek bed, not the Lutheran Church. Many such