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we are introduced to the setting of the house built of round timber stringy bark and floored with split slabs and the location bush everywhere with no horizon and the description of the drover's wife who a sunbrown gaunt bushwomen and her 4 children as well as the dog alligator -
Tommy one of the children of the drove's wife rushed to tell his mother that there was a snake in the house but a storm was approaching and she didn't want them inside knowing that there was a snake in the house. She brings the children into the kitchen and gets them on the table. after feeding them supper she goes into the house and grabs pillows and blankets for the children and makes a bed on the kitchen table -
the mother stays up all night wait for the snake so she can kill it. whist staying up the drover's wife has flashbacks of her past and how much she has had to overcome with her husband not being there to support her or protect her and the children
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The dog alligator catches the snake whist the drover wife watches in fascination then she grabs the snake and beats the snake to death against the wall
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the mother and son have a warming hug