“Rely on no one. Get the job done; do it ya’self.”

“Rely on no one. Get the job done; do it ya’self” is a maxim Molly learned from her father and puts into action after killing a bullock. Its force lies not in abstract independence but in the work that follows: with labor imminent and provisions scarce, Molly and her children turn the carcass into food and useful materials, making self-reliance a means of keeping the family alive.

Origin and Meaning

Molly’s father taught her not to depend on others and to finish necessary work herself. In the bullock episode, this remembered rule becomes the principle governing what the family does with the animal. The maxim’s plain, imperative phrasing leaves little room for hesitation: it insists on action, even when the work is difficult and Molly’s body is under strain.

The scene gives the saying a practical rather than merely moral meaning. Molly does not treat the dead bullock as a triumph to admire or a resource that can be put aside. It must be butchered, preserved, and made to serve several needs. Self-reliance here is a method of survival under material scarcity, not a claim that the family needs nothing from the world around it.

The Bullock and the Work of Survival

After the shot, Molly is shaken; the sound still rings in her ears, and her children’s screams bring her out of her stupor. She struggles to speak, then tells Danny to bring rope and use the lowest branch of the snow gum to hang and bleed the animal. Her first response to the kill is already practical: the bullock must become meat.

Molly staggers over with a short-bladed knife taken from her sock garter. Holding one of the bullock’s horns, she twists its head back and cuts its throat. Danny hogties the hind legs, and his two brothers arrive to help drag the beast to the tree. Together they heave it just an inch off the ground; their hands are rubbed raw by the effort. Molly fears that the exertion could bring on her labor, but refuses to waste what the bullock can provide.

The carcass answers more than one immediate need. Its meat will feed the children and can be traded for desperately needed provisions. The hide can be made into sheaths for all the children and perhaps moccasins for Danny before winter. Molly’s resolve to waste nothing echoes the practical teaching she inherited from her father: the maxim is realized through careful use of every available part.

From Maxim to Sustained Practice

The work continues beyond the kill. Molly and her boys butcher the animal, then eat meat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner over the next week and two days. They pickle and salt some of it, make jerky, and smoke the rest over wild apple-tree wood, which gives it a sweet taste. The extended process shows that getting the job done means preserving food for continued use, not simply securing one meal.

The smoking meat draws wild dogs to the shanty. Molly drives them away by clapping two pieces of wood together so that the sound resembles a gunshot. The same scene of resourcefulness thus continues into the protection of what the family has prepared: Molly adapts available materials to keep the dogs at bay, while the preserved meat sustains the household through the days that follow.

Narrative Significance

The episode places the maxim beside the physical costs and concrete returns of work. Molly is late in pregnancy and afraid the exertion may bring on labor, yet she directs the processing because the family needs food, trade goods, and materials for winter. The saying does not erase that vulnerability; it names the determination with which she acts despite it.

Its apparent command to rely on no one is also complicated by the scene itself. Molly sets the task in motion, but Danny and his brothers help lift and drag the bullock, and the family’s survival depends on their shared labor. The maxim’s lasting force therefore comes not from solitary action but from Molly’s refusal to wait passively for help: she makes a plan, assigns necessary work, and ensures that the bullock’s value is carried through into food and supplies.