'Frank Layton, the eponymous young hero, left without an inheritance after his father's death, has emigrated to make his way by working on a station. Initially he finds it hard to accommodate the rough bush conveniences with his own 'cultivated taste of a highly polished life', however, he proves to be made of stern stuff and can therefore express no genuine feeling for the plight of 'poor Cousin Bessie', caught in Canvas Town and likely to be there for perpuity. Not such a model of british manhood as Frank, Bessie's husband is untried and untested in the bush and 'has no aptitude nor determination ... energy or perseverance.' (373).' (Pam Macintyre 'From Canvas Town to Marvellous Melbourne: Melbourne in Colonial Children's Novels'
La Trobe Library Journal 60 (Spring 1997): 74-83).
