We did not abandon my sister and brothers: in- deed, we learned to be big sisters and big brothers to them when Pat and I were not toiling with eager appe- with Aunt Jemima.

tite,

When we were twelve we made our first public appearance on an improvised stage at a bush concert in Mulligan's Find. We had evolved a routine which included dancing, singing, juggling, miming and a gui- tar duet. The act involved several quick changes from boy to girl and back again, and we produced it with complete confidence, because Auntie Jem (as I often called her affectionately now) had said it would bring the house down. She was right. Our parents, who had been rather apprehensive, were proud of us. Aunt Je- mima gave us a fortnight's holiday (which we spent as tomboyish girls) and then set us to work again girls one week and boys the next.

Now it happened that Pat had something of a flair for writing plays and skits, and I had already begun to compose songs: these were talents which Auntie Jem had discovered in us. So, when next we appeared in public (in Barribarri a few months later) we included in our act a little sketchof Pat's with two of my songs in it. It was a hit, too.

Six months later we travelled to Perth, where we visited as many theatres as possible, and took part in a special charity concert in aid of the Bush Nursing Appeal. This was our first city appearance in such a fashionable affair, but we were not perturbed by that until, a few minutes before the start of the show, we sneaked from our dressing-room onto the stage, and peered out through a narrow slit in the curtain. Pat looked charming in a shimmering blue nylon frock which she had made herself, and I was wearing my fav- ourite wine- red velvet dress with lace at cuffs and col- lar. Our rehearsal, which had been held in a small ad- joining hall, had gone with a swing, and until we look- ed out through that curtain we had felt pretty pleased with ourselves. But what we saw then left us almost stupefied with fright.

To our wide bush-baby eyes, used to the shanties