THE HOUSE THAT GUILDA DREW

Guilda Runkoop and her parents were Dutch immigrants to Australia and her father had been employed as an itinerant farm worker for as long as she could remember. As described here, the lot of Australian itinerants is one of discomfort rather than deprivation and Guilda yearns for a house after a lifetime of tenting. When union organizers halt the work at a grape picking center, Mr. Runkoop leaves rather than join the strikers or take an inside job. On hearing of work at a timber mill in the Moogara Forest, he decides to try it. With the job comes a derelict house. Guilda has the chance to go to school regularly, moves ahead quickly and learns to love the forest. Mr. Runkoop restores the house and they move in to stay. This is a series of incidents rather than a story with a distinct climax. There never is any real doubt that Guilda is going to get the permanent home base she wants. Guilda's relationship with her parents is of the cuff-and-cuddle variety of an ordinary child being conscientiously brought up. This and the back country Australian setting lend spark and interest to what would otherwise be a rather bland story of easy wish fulfillment.