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went on into the kitchen to continue my cleaning duties.
    While I was busy in the dining room polishing up the silverware and brassware from the mantelpiece to the window ledges, which were spread around the room, I caught a glimpse of them strutting past the window. The way they were both dressed reminded me of the characters out of a book I used to read when I was a child, called “The Three Musketeers.”
    I picked up an item I was polishing and moved towards a window from where I could follow the car with my eyes right down the driveway. When it turned left onto the highway to go into town, I dropped what I was doing, sat back and gave a sigh of relief.

THE TURKEYS
    Mm, just to smell the aroma of bacon and eggs cooking made my mouth water. Then I made some toast, and when everything was ready I got my old tin plate and tin mug, chucked them in the sink and took out a setting from one of her finest crockery services. I went into the dining room where she sat at the table, laid everything out, got a clean serviette, put that on my bread and butter plate, then went into the kitchen to get my breakfast out of the oven.
    Just as I was about to sit down, I had a feeling that there was something missing. “Oh, yes, that’s it!” So I went to the boys’ room and got the wireless out. “I’ll have some music. The place is a bit quiet and needs livening up.” I turned the music up loud, and then sat down to the most nourishing meal of my life - all the time thinking, if she could see me now she’d probably have a heart attack.
    I felt quite contented just sitting there enjoying my breakfast. “Well, why not?” I thought. “I work hard and it’s about time I took it easy for a while.”
    Now that I had demolished everything on my plate, I felt quite satisfied. ‘That breakfast was sufficient,” I thought to myself. “I’ll just skimp through my main jobs that have to be done, she won’t know any better.”
    When everything looked fresh and clean, I could take a walk and look for the turkeys. It was such a nice day outside, a pity to stay indoors and work. So I went into her old shed and found a big stick in the comer.
    One of my childhood habits was to always walk along with a stick in my hand. We did a lot of bush walking when I was in the mission, and the nuns could never understand why we used to all grab our sticks when we set off for the bush, as they came along with us. I guess it gave us a sense of security.
    Now that I had my stick in my hand, I set off in the direction of the orchard, thinking it would be nice if I had some ripe juicy pears and apples to munch on during my walk through the paddocks.
    So off I went, down to the orchard. When I got there I opened up the big iron gates and made my way down a few lanes, selecting out the best fruit. I couldn’t wait to sample that fruit. I sunk my teeth into a big juicy pear.
    Never before in my growing years did I have the opportunity to help myself to fresh fruit, so I might as well make the most of it while I could.
    In the mission we only saw fresh fruit once in a blue moon. I remember when we were little girls we used to sneak around the convent to where the nuns used to have their meals and hide and wait in the grass until one of the nuns emptied the scraps in the bin. We used to wait for the right moment, then it would be one mad dash to the bins to get the orange and apple peels out.
    I remember the big silent fights we used to have unbeknown to the nuns. If they had realised we would’ve got a flogging for sure.
    I smiled to myself as I took off my apron, put my fruit into it, then bundled it up in knapsack style, threw it over my shoulder and went off down towards the river, as that’s where she said I would find her turkeys.
    As I went along I looked all around at the countryside, which was very hilly. The gullies were steep and deep. “Fascinating,” I thought as I