Joe’s Courtship, by Henry Lawson

And, oh, but wasn’t I happy walking home with Mary that night! She was too little
for me to put my arm round her waist, so I put it round her shoulder, and that felt just
as good. [...]
She wouldn’t go back to the dance yet; she said she’d go into her room and rest a
while. There was no one near the old verandah; and when she stood on the end of the
floor she was just on a level with my shoulder.
‘Mary,’ I whispered, ‘put your arms round my neck and kiss me.’
She put her arms round my neck, but she didn’t kiss me; she only hid her face.
‘Kiss me, Mary!’ I said.

GLOSSARY
waist: cintura
whispered:
sussurrou
unless: a menos
que
it dawned on
me: me dei
conta
proposing:
propor (em
casamento)
a chap like me:
um cara
como eu

48 CADERNO DO ALUNO

‘I — I don’t like to,’ she whispered.
‘Why not, Mary?’
Then I felt her crying or laughing, or half crying and half laughing. I’m not sure to this
day which it was.
‘Why won’t you kiss me, Mary? Don’t you love me?’
‘Because,’ she said, ‘because — because I — I don’t — I don’t think it’s right for — for a
girl to — to kiss a man unless she’s going to be his wife.’
Then it dawned on me! I’d forgot all about proposing.
‘Mary,’ I said, ‘would you marry a chap like me?’
And that was all right.
Extracted from: LAWSON, Harry. Joe Wilson and His Mates. Australia, 1901. Available at: . Accessed on: 7 July, 2020.
4. Read the extract again. Which part of the text shows that courtship between a
man and a woman in the 1900’s couldn’t happen before marriage?
a. [ ] ‘Mary,’ I whispered, ‘put your arms round my neck and kiss me.’
b. [ ] ‘Because,’ she said, ‘because — because I — I don’t — I don’t think it’s right for — for a girl
to — to kiss a man unless she’s going to be his wife.’
c. [ ] ‘I — I don’t like to,’ she whispered.


pfv ajudem