# While the Billy Boils — Character guide

> Key figures in While the Billy Boils by Henry Lawson.

- [Mitchell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/mitchell.md): Mitchell tramps the long, dry stretches of the outback with the narrator, rolling out his swag on the sand and covering his face with calico against the moonlight. He can curse a grieving mother like a larrikin one momen
- [Steelman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/steelman.md): Steelman divides the world into 'spielers and mugs,' and he is emphatically the former, using greasepaint, borrowed rags, and a carefully rehearsed Aberdeen backstory to transform Smith into a convincing death's-door beg
- [The Narrator](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/the_narrator.md): Whether he is a swagman sharing a campfire or a journalist taking notes, the narrator is the collection's steady eye and ear, drawing out stories from bullock-drivers, shearers, and shanty-keepers. He listens with wry pa
- [Tom Hopkins](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/tom_hopkins.md): Tom Hopkins moves through the world of the shearing shed with a lumbering, good-natured bewilderment, caught up in the pranks and grumblings of the men around him. He is the sort of figure who watches a cook's poodle get
- [The Old Man](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/the_old_man.md): The Old Man surfaces in the narrator's yarns as the kind of grizzled identity who has seen it all and will not be told otherwise, the sort of 'self-opinionated and obstinate' character who insists Brummy Usen is dead and
- [Bogan Bill](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/bogan_bill.md): Billy Nowlett is the bullocky who has been 'killed before' and takes the news of his own death with a shrug, more surprised about the five quid than the obituary. A shanty-keeper up Coonamble way could never tell him apa
- [John Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/john_smith.md): Smith is the loyal, credulous foil to Steelman, a man whose good nature makes him easy prey for every confidence trick his partner can invent. When Steelman dresses him as a dying consumptive to beg from a Scottish house
- [Arvie Aspinall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/arvie_aspinall.md): Arvie is a child labourer in Jones's Alley, dragging himself through each day while his mother frets over rent and his failing health. Even in sleep he mutters about the alarm going off, so conditioned is he to the grind
- [Malachi Duggan](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/malachi_duggan.md): Malachi is a shabby, sandy-haired bushman who has never left his native scrub except for one dazed visit to Sydney, which he can only describe as 'a caution.' He hates high-flown language and the opposite sex with equal 
- [Macquarie](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/macquarie.md): Macquarie never appears in the bar of Stiffner's shanty, yet his reputation drives the men there to insults and near-blows, with Barcoo calling him a cheat and a blackguard. Old Awful Example, a sodden wreck who once par
- [Baldy Thompson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/baldy_thompson.md): Baldy is a rough, squarish man with a curly auburn wig and a lifelong grudge against banks, government, and the country itself, though the men swear by him as old Baldy the squatter. He will keep a shearer on the payroll
- [Stiffner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/stiffner.md): Stiffner runs a bush pub where the drink flows and the swags of careless travellers have a way of vanishing, and he does not take kindly to being bested. When two travellers make off with their belongings, he and his equ
- [Tom Brook](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/tom_brook.md): Tom Brook is a selector and shearer whose hard-won farm turns out to sit on barren ridges, setting him against a squatter who seizes the land and sues him for trespass. His stubborn optimism—he keeps shifting fences and 
- [The Stranger](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/the_stranger.md): An enigmatic figure who appears in various campfire yarns.
- [Mrs. Aspinall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/mrs_aspinall.md): The hard-working mother of Arvie Aspinall.
- [Tom Mason](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/tom_mason.md): A young boy in a bush school story.
- [Jim Brown](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/jim_brown.md): A shearer and mate, often in trouble.
- [Brummy Usen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/brummy_usen.md): A boastful, comic bushman with a thick accent.
- [Jim Smith](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/jim_smith.md): A shearer and occasional mate of the narrator.
- [Tom Marshall](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/tom_marshall.md): A shearer known for his singing voice.
- [Jimmy Nowlett](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/jimmy_nowlett.md): A bullock-driver and bush character.
- [Mother Brock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/mother_brock.md): An old bush woman who keeps a shanty.
- [Queen Elizabeth](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/queen_elizabeth.md): A barmaid or barmaid-like figure in a pub.
- [Dave](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/dave.md): A shearer and mate of the narrator.
- [Mary](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/mary.md): An Aboriginal woman or a servant in a story.
- [Adelaide Adolphus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/adelaide_adolphus.md): A miner mentioned in a yarn about lost mates.
- [Mr. James Mitchell](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/mr_james_mitchell.md): A station owner or boss.
- [Barcoo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/barcoo.md): A dog or a bushman from the Barcoo region.
- [Servant Girl](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/servant_girl.md): A pretty servant in a boarding house story.
- [The Doctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/the_doctor.md): A bush doctor who appears in several stories.
- [Little Isley Mason](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/little_isley_mason.md): A young boy in a bush school story.
- [Curry](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/curry.md): A shearer or bush worker.
- [Joe Swallow](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/joe_swallow.md): A young shearer or bushman.
- [Pat Martin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/pat_martin.md): An Irish bushman and mate.
- [Father](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/father.md): A father figure in a bush story.
- [Isley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/isley.md): A young boy in a bush school story.
- [Scotty](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/scotty.md): A Scottish bushman.
- [Selector](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/selector.md): A generic selector character.
- [James Tyson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/james_tyson.md): A wealthy pastoralist mentioned in a story.
- [Missus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/missus.md): A generic wife or landlady.
- [The Exception](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters/the_exception.md): A character in a philosophical yarn.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/while_the_billy_boils_se/characters