Human Toll

by Barbara Baynton

Human Toll Chapter 1 WHAT was this blocking the tallow-scoop? Boshy, secretly styled 'The Lag,' or 'One Eye,' bent to see. Leisurely he thrust down a groping hand and drew up, but not out, a fatclogged basil-belt. Hastily his other hand clawed it conferringly, then with both he forced it back again into its greasy hidingplace of past long years. Cautiously his one eye went from door to window, then he rolled the fat-can with its mouth to the wall, and, going out, he took a sweeping survey. The sky and plain still drowsed dreamily, and neither the sick Boss's home, nor Nungi the half-caste's hut on the other side of the riversplit plain, showed sign of smoke. The only gleam of life was a breath-misted string of cows filing leisurely but lovingly to their penned calves.

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First published April 25, 1907

About the author

The child of Irish immigrants to Australia, Baynton promoted a version of her birth as the daughter of minor nobility. Her literary career began after her second marriage in 1890, to a retired surgeon twice her age. Baynton's short stories challenged the traditional 19th century view of colonial life in the Australian outback, by raising the plight of women and the dispossessed. The short story collection "Bush Studies" is routinely studied in Australian schools.

After the death of her husband, Baynton invested in the stock market and became chairman of the Law Book Company of Australasia, during which time she published her only novel, "Human Toll".

In 1921, Baynton married her third husband, the 5th Baron Headley, a convert to Islam and a claimant to the throne of Albania. The marriage suffered issues early; Baynton spent her final years in the Melbourne suburb of Toorak.