'Each chapter describes an incident in the life of Harry and Sydney Lawson. The Lawsons deal with bushrangers, snakes, and lost children with courage and humour, and details such as life on the goldfields and the influence of and attitudes to the Chinese are presented in a direct, often ironic style. Rowe subscribes to the superiority of the native-born Australian over the immigrant: "They're a queer lot the blackfellows ... but they're a long sight better than the new chums -they were born in the colony just like us. A blackfellow can ride like a native but those Englishmen look so scared when a horse begins to buck."' (The Oxford Companion to Australian Children's Literature ed. Stella Lees and Pam Macintyre (1993): 371).