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Meggie
was
curled
into
a
little
heap
,
with
her
thumb
in
her
mouth
and
her
rag-decorated
hair
all
around
her
.
The
only
girl
.
Fee
cast
her
no
more
than
a
passing
glance
before
leaving
;
there
was
no
mystery
to
Meggie
,
she
was
female
.
Fee
knew
what
her
lot
would
be
,
and
did
not
envy
her
or
pity
her
.
The
boys
were
different
;
they
were
miracles
,
males
alchemized
out
of
her
female
body
.
It
was
hard
not
having
help
around
the
house
,
but
it
was
worth
it
.
Among
his
peers
,
Paddy
's
sons
were
the
greatest
character
reference
he
possessed
.
Let
a
man
breed
sons
and
he
was
a
real
man
.
She
closed
the
door
to
her
own
bedroom
softly
,
and
put
the
lamp
down
on
a
bureau
Her
nimble
fingers
flew
down
the
dozens
of
tiny
buttons
between
the
high
collar
and
the
hips
of
her
dress
,
then
peeled
it
away
from
her
arms
.
She
slipped
the
camisole
off
her
arms
also
,
and
holding
it
very
carefully
against
her
chest
,
she
wriggled
into
a
long
flannel
nightgown
.
Only
then
,
decently
covered
,
did
she
divest
herself
of
camisole
,
drawers
and
loosely
laced
stays
.
Down
came
the
tightly
knotted
golden
hair
,
all
its
pins
put
into
a
paua
shell
on
the
bureau
.
But
even
this
,
beautiful
as
it
was
,
thick
and
shining
and
very
straight
,
was
not
permitted
freedom
;
Fee
got
her
elbows
up
over
her
head
and
her
hands
behind
her
neck
,
and
began
to
braid
it
swiftly
.
She
turned
then
toward
the
bed
,
her
breathing
unconsciously
suspended
;
but
Paddy
was
asleep
,
so
she
heaved
a
gusty
sigh
of
relief
.
Not
that
it
was
n't
nice
when
Paddy
was
in
the
mood
,
for
he
was
a
shy
,
tender
,
considerate
lover
.
But
until
Meggie
was
two
or
three
years
older
it
would
be
very
hard
to
have
more
babies
.
When
the
Clearys
went
to
church
on
Sundays
,
Meggie
had
to
stay
home
with
one
of
the
older
boys
,
longing
for
the
day
when
she
,
too
,
would
be
old
enough
to
go
.
Padraic
Cleary
held
that
small
children
had
no
place
in
any
house
save
their
own
,
and
his
rule
held
even
for
a
house
of
worship
.
When
Meggie
commenced
school
and
could
be
trusted
to
sit
still
,
she
could
come
to
church
.
Not
before
.
So
every
Sunday
morning
she
stood
by
the
gorse
bush
at
the
front
gate
,
desolate
,
while
the
family
piled
into
the
old
shandrydan
and
the
brother
delegated
to
mind
her
tried
to
pretend
it
was
a
great
treat
escaping
Mass.
.
The
only
Cleary
who
relished
separation
from
the
rest
was
Frank
.
Paddy
's
religion
was
an
intrinsic
part
of
his
life
.
When
he
had
married
Fee
it
had
been
with
grudging
Catholic
approval
,
for
Fee
was
a
member
of
the
Church
of
England
;
though
she
abandoned
her
faith
for
Paddy
,
she
refused
to
adopt
his
in
its
stead
.
Difficult
to
say
why
,
except
that
the
Armstrongs
were
old
pioneering
stock
of
impeccable
Church
of
England
extraction
,
where
Paddy
was
a
penniless
immigrant
from
the
wrong
side
of
the
Pale
.
There
had
been
Armstrongs
in
New
Zealand
long
before
the
first
"
official
"
settlers
arrived
,
and
that
was
a
passport
to
colonial
aristocracy
.
From
the
Armstrong
point
of
view
,
Fee
could
only
be
said
to
have
contracted
a
shocking
mésalliance
.
Roderick
Armstrong
had
founded
the
New
Zealand
clan
,
in
a
very
curious
way
.
It
had
begun
with
an
event
which
was
to
have
many
unforeseen
repercussions
on
eighteenth-century
England
:
the
American
War
of
Independence
.
Until
1776
over
a
thousand
British
petty
felons
were
shipped
each
year
to
Virginia
and
the
Carolinas
,
sold
into
an
indentured
servitude
no
better
than
slavery
.
British
justice
of
the
time
was
grim
and
unflinching
;
murder
,
arson
,
the
mysterious
crime
of
"
impersonating
Egyptians
"
and
larceny
to
the
tune
of
more
than
a
shilling
were
punished
on
the
gallows
.
Petty
crime
meant
transportation
to
the
Americas
for
the
term
of
the
felon
's
natural
life
.
But
when
in
1776
the
Americas
were
closed
,
England
found
herself
with
a
rapidly
increasing
convict
population
and
nowhere
to
put
it
.
The
prisons
filled
to
overflowing
,
and
the
surplus
was
jammed
into
rotting
hulks
moored
in
the
river
estuaries
.
Something
had
to
be
done
,
so
something
was
.
With
a
great
deal
of
reluctance
because
it
meant
the
expenditure
of
a
few
thousand
pounds
,
Captain
Arthur
Phillip
was
ordered
to
set
sail
for
the
Great
South
Land
.
The
year
was
1787
.
His
fleet
of
eleven
ships
held
over
one
thousand
convicts
,
plus
sailors
,
naval
officers
and
a
contingent
of
marines
.
No
glorious
odyssey
in
search
of
freedom
,
this
.
At
the
end
of
January
1788
,
eight
months
after
setting
sail
from
England
,
the
fleet
arrived
in
Botany
Bay
.
His
Mad
Majesty
George
the
Third
had
found
a
new
dumping
ground
for
his
convicts
,
the
colony
of
New
South
Wales
.
In
1801
,
when
he
was
just
twenty
years
of
age
,
Roderick
Armstrong
was
sentenced
to
transportation
for
the
term
of
his
natural
life
.
