THE COCKATOO JUDGETHE COCKATOO JUDGE
This interruption, and the Swallow's repeated assurance that no human trial of importance could take place without horsehair, set all the creatures chattering with astonishment and questions. Some said the Swallow was joking; others said that it was making senseless delays, and that night would fall before they could bring the prisoner to justice. There was much grumbling on all sides, and complaints of hunger, and the jury began to clamour for the grubs that they had been promised, at which the Magpie whispered to Dot that she certainly wouldbe found guilty. The fact was now quite clear to the jury before the trial began.
But the Swallow persisted that they must have horsehair.
"What for?" asked everyone, sulkily.
"Don't you see for yourselves," squeaked the Swallow, excitedly; "the Judge looks like a Cockatoo."
"Well, of course he does," said all the creatures. "He is a Cockatoo, so he looks like one!"
"Yes," cried the Swallow, "but you must stick horse hairs on his head. Human justice must be done with horsehair. The prisoner won't believe the Cockatoo is a judge without. Good Gracious!" exclaimed the Swallow, "just look! The prisoner is scratching the Judge's poll! We reallymusthave horsehair!"
Dot, seeing the Swallow's indignation, drew away from the stump, and the Cockatoo tried to look as if he had never seen her before, and as if the idea of having his poll scratched by the prisoner was one that could never have entered his head.
"But if we do put horsehair on the Cockatoo's head," argued the creatures, "what will it do?"
"It will impress the prisoner," said the Swallow.
"How?" they all asked curiously.
"Because the Cockatoo won't look like a Cockatoo," replied the Swallow, with exasperation.
"Then what will he look like?" asked every creature in breathless excitement.
"He won't look like any creature that ever lived," retorted the Swallow.
Perfect silence followed this explanation, for every bird and animal was trying to understand human sense and reason. Then the smallest Kangaroo Rat broke the stillness.
"If," said the Kangaroo Rat, "only a little horsehair can do that, surely the prisoner can imagine the Judge isn't a Cockatoo, without our having to wait for the horsehair. Let's get on with the trial."
This idea was received with applause, and the Swallow flew off in a huff; whilst the Kookooburra, on a tree near the Court, softly laughed to himself.
Once more the Pelican took up his position to open the trial. The Cockatoo puffed himself out as big as he could, fluffed out his cheek feathers, and half closed his eyes. His solemnly attentive attitude won the admiration of all the Court, and the absence of horsehair was not felt by anyone. The WelcomeSwallow, having got over its ill temper, returned to help the proceedings; and the jury all put their heads under their wings and went to sleep.
"Fire away!" screamed the Cockatoo, and the trial began.
"My duty is a most painful one," said the Pelican; "for" ("whereas," said the Swallow) "the prisoner known" ("named and described," added the Swallow), "as Dot is now before you," ("to be tried, heard, determined and adjudged," gabbled the Swallow) "on a charge of cruelty" ("and feloniously killing and slaying," prompted the Swallow) "to birds and animals," ("the term not applying to horse, mare, pony, bull, ox, dog, cat, heifer, steer, calf, mule, ass, sheep, lamb, hog, pig, sow, goat, or other domestic animal," interposed in one breath the Swallow, quoting the Cruelty to Animals Act) "she is" ("hereby," put in the Swallow) "brought to trial on" ("divers," whispered the Swallow) "charges," ("hereinafter," said the Swallow) "to be named and described by the" ("aforesaid," interjected the Swallow) "birds and animals," ("hereinbefore mentioned," stated the Swallow) "the said animals being denizens of the Bush" ("and in no wise relating to horse, mare, pony, bull, ox,"—began the Swallow again, when the Cockatoo raised his crest, and screamed out "STOP THAT, I TELL YOU!" and the Pelican continued stating the charge.) "Bush law" ("enacts," said the Swallow) "that" ("whereas," prompted the Swallow) "all individual rights" ("whatsoever," put in the Swallow) "shall be according to the statute Victoria—"
"Victoria! Twenty to one against the field," shouted the Judge.
"Between you two," said the Pelican, looking angrily at the Swallow and the Cockatoo, "I've forgotten everything I was going to say! I shan't go on!"
"Never mind," said the Swallow cheerfully, "you've said quite enough, and no one has understood a word of the charge, so it's all right. Now then for the witnesses."
As the Swallow spoke, there was a great disturbance amongst the creatures. The swan, ducks, cranes, and waterfowl, besides honeysuckers, and many other birds, were all fanning the air with their wings, and crying, "Turn him out!" "Disgusting!" "I never heard of such a thing in my life! the smell of it always gives me a headache!" and there was such a noise that the jury all woke up, and Dot covered her ears with her hands. The Cockatoo, seeing Dot's distress at the screams and hubbub, and thinking that she wanted to say something, but could not make herself heard in the general riot, decided to speak for her; so he screamed louder than all the rest, and shouted, "Apples, oranges, pears, lemonade, cigarettes,andcigars! I say! what's the row?"
THE PELICAN OPENS THE CASETHE PELICAN OPENS THE CASE
When quiet was restored, it was explained that the Opossum had brought into Court a pouch full of gum leaves, which it was eating. It had also given some to the Native Bear, and Wallaby, and in consequence the whole air was laden with the odour of eucalyptus.
"Oh, dear!" said Dot, "it smells just like when I have a cold!"
"Eating eucalyptus leaves in Court is contempt of Court," cried the Swallow; and everyone echoed, "Contempt of Court! contempt of Court! Turn them out!"
"But they are witnesses," objected the Pelican.
"That doesn't matter!" shouted the Waterfowl, "it's a disgusting smell! Turn them out!"
"Hurrah!" shouted the Wallaby, as it leaped off. "What luck!" laughed the Opossum, as it cleared into the nearest tree. "I am glad," sighed the Koala, as it slowly moved away; "that trial made my head feel empty."
"Well, there go three of the most important witnesses," grumbled the Pelican.
"My eye! what a spree!" said the Judge.
A Galah amongst the Jury, wishing to be thought intelligent, enquired what charge the Wallaby, Native Bear, and Opossum were to bear witness to.
"It is a matter of skins, included in the fur rugs clause, and the wickedness known as 'Sport,'" answered the Pelican.
Whilst the Pelican was making this explanation, the Judge, who had been longing to have his poll scratched again, sidled up to Dot, and whispered softly to her, "Scratch Cockie!" But, just as he was enjoying the delicious sensation Dot's fingers produced amongst his neck feathers, as he held his head down, the Pelican caught sight of the proceeding. The Pelican said nothing, but stared at the Judge with an eye of such astonishment and stern contempt, that the Cockatoo instantly remembered that he was a judge, and, getting into a proper attitude, said hastily, "Advance Australia! who's the next witness?" And again the Kookooburra laughed to himself on the tree.
"Fur first!" exclaimed a white Ibis. "Call the Platypus!"
"The Platypus won't come!" cried the Kangaroo Rat.
"Well, I never!" exclaimed the Judge.
"It says that if a Court is held at all, it should be conducted by the representative of Antediluvian custom, the most ancient and learned creatures, such as the Iguana, the Snake, and Ornithorhynchus Paradoxus. That it would preferto associate with the meanest Troglodite, rather than appear amongst the present company. I understood it to say," continued the Kangaroo Rat, "that real law could only be understood by those deeply learned in fossils."
"'Pon my word!" ejaculated the Judge. "Shiver my timbers! What blooming impudence!"
"Oh! you naughty bird to use such words!" exclaimed Dot. But all the Court murmured "How clever!" and the Cockatoo was pleased.
"Native Cat, next!" shouted the white Ibis. But at the first mention of the Native Cat nearly every bird, and all the small game, prepared to get away.
"Why don't you call the Dingo at once?" laughed the Kookooburra, who was really keeping guard over Dot, although she did not know it. "Humans kill Dingoes."
"The Dingo! the Dingo!" every creature repeated in horror and consternation; and they all looked about in fear, while the Kookooburra chuckled to himself at all the stir his words had made.
"It's quite true that animals and birds kill one another," said the Magpie, who thought he ought to say something in Dot's defence, as that was his part in the trial, "therefore it is the same nature that makes Humans kill us. If it is the nature of Humans to kill, the same as it is the nature of birds and animals to kill, where is the sense and justice of trying the prisoner for what she can't help doing?"
"Good!" said the Welcome Swallow, "argued like a lawyer."
At this unexpected turn of the trial the Judge softly whistled to himself, "Pop goes the weasel."
"Don't talk to us about nature and justice and sense," replied the Pelican, contemptuously. "This is a Court of law, we have nothing to do with any of them!"
The Court all cheered at this reply, and the Magpie subsided in the sulks.
"Call the Kangaroo!" cried the white Ibis.
"It's no good," jeered the Kookooburra. "Kangaroo and Dot are great friends. She won't come if you called——"
"'Till all's blue!" interrupted the Judge, and he went on with "Pop goes the weasel." This news caused a buzz of excitement. Everyone was astounded that the Kangaroo, who had the heaviest grievances of all, wouldn't appear against the prisoner.
"Is it possible," said the Pelican, addressing the Kookooburra in slow stern accents, "Is it possible that the Kangaroo has forgiven all her grievances?"
"All," said the Kookooburra.
"The hunting?" asked the Pelican.
"Yes," answered the Kookooburra.
"The rugs?"
"Yes."
"The boots?"
"Yes."
"And," said the Pelican, still more solemnly and slowly, while all the Court listened in breathless attention, "and has she forgivenKangaroo-tail soup?"
"Yes! she's forgiven that too," answered the Kookooburra cheerfully.
"Then," said the Pelican, hotly, "I throw up the case," and he spread his huge black wings, and flapped his way up into the sky and away.
"What a go!" said the Judge; and he might have said more, only Dot could not hear anything on account of the racket and confusion. The trial had failed, and every creature was making all the noise it could, and preparing to hurry away. In the middle of the turmoil, Dot's Kangaroo bounded into the open space, panting with excitement and delight.
"Dot! Dot!" she cried, "I've found Willy Wagtail, and he knows your way! Come along at once!" And, putting Dot in her pouch, the Kangaroo leaped clean over the Judge and carried her off!
Although the Kangaroo was longing to hear the reason why so many Bush creatures had collected round Dot whilst she was away, she was too anxious to carry her to Willy Wagtail before nightfall to wait and enquire what had happened. Dot, too, was so excited at hearing that her way home had been found, that she could only think of the delight of seeing her father and mother again. So the Kangaroo had hopped until she was tired and needed rest, before they spoke. Then Dot described the Trial, and made the Kangaroo laugh about the Cockatoo Judge, but she did not say how it had all ended because the Kangaroo had forgiven Dot for Humans making rugs of her fur, boots of her skin, and soup of her tail. She was afraid of hurting her feelings by mentioning such delicate subjects. The Kangaroo never noticed that anything was left out, because she was bursting to relate her interview with Willy Wagtail.
She told Dot how she had found Willy Wagtail near his old haunt; how that gossiping little bird had told all the news of the Gabblebabble town and district in ten minutes, and how he had said he believed he knew Dot by sight, and that if such were the case he would show Dot and the Kangaroo the way to the little girl's home. Then Dot and the Kangaroo hurried on their way again, the little girl sometimes running and walking to rest the kind animal, and sometimes being carried in that soft cosy pouch that had been her cradle and carriage for all those days.
It was quite dusk by the time they arrived at a split-rail fence, and heard a little bird singing, "Sweet pretty creature! sweet pretty creature!"
"That is Willy Wagtail making love," said the Kangaroo, with a humorous twinkle in her quiet eyes. "Peep round the bush," she said to Dot, "and you'll see them spooning."
THE KANGAROO CARRIES DOT OUT OF COURTTHE KANGAROO CARRIES DOT OUT OF COURT
Dot glanced through the branches, and saw two wagtails, who looked very smart with their black coats and white waistcoats, sitting on two posts of the fence a little way off. They were each pretending that their long big tails were too heavy to balance them properly, and they seemed to be always just saving themselves from toppling off their perch. Occasionally Willy would dart into the air, to show what an expert in flying he was; he would shoot straightupwards, turn a double somersault backwards, and wing off in the direction one least expected. Afterwards he would return to his post as calm and cool as if he had done nothing surprising, and say "Pretty pretty Chip-pi-ti-chip!" that name meaning the other wagtail. Then Chip-pi-ti-chip showed offherflying, and they both said to one another "Sweet pretty creature!"
At the sound of Dot and the Kangaroo's approach "Chip-pi-ti-chip" hid herself in a tree, and Willy Wagtail, not knowing who was disturbing them, scolded angrily; but when he saw the Kangaroo and the little girl, he gave them the most cordial greeting, and wobbled about on a rail as if he must tumble off every second.
"This is Dot," said the Kangaroo a little anxiously, and rather breathless with the speed she had made.
"Just as I had expected!" exclaimed Willy Wagtail, with a jerk of his tail which nearly sent him headlong off the rail. "I should know you anywhere, little Human, though you do look a bit different. You want preening," he added.
This last remark was in allusion to Dot's appearance, which certainly was most untidy and dirty, for, beyond an occasional lick from the Kangaroo, she had been five days without being tidied and cleaned.
"I couldn't do it better," said the Kangaroo apologetically.
"It doesn't matter at all," said Dot, putting her tangled curls back from her eyes.
"Well! I know where you live," gabbled off the Wagtail. "It's the second big paddock from here, if you follow the belt of the sheoak trees over there. It's a house just like those things in Gabblebabble township. There's a yellow sheep dog, who's very good tempered, and a black one that made a snap at my tail the other day. There is an old grey cart horse, an honest fellow, but rather dull; and a bay mare who is much better company. There is a little red cow who is a great friend of mine, and she had a calf a few days before you were lost. Dear me!" exclaimed the gossiping bird, "what a fuss there has been these five days over trying to find you! I've been over there every day to see the sight. Such a lot of Humans! and such horses. I enjoyed myself immensely, and made a lot of friends amongst the horses, but I didn't care so much for the dogs; I thought them a nasty quarrelsome lot.
"I went with the whole turnout to see the search. Goodness! the distances they went, and the noise and the big fires they made, itwasexciting fun! They brought over some black Humans—'Trackers' is what they are called, at leastthe Mounted Troopers' horses told me so (my word! the Troopers' horses are jolly fellows!) Well, these black trackers went in front of each party just like dogs, with their heads to the ground, and they turned over every leaf and twig, and said if a Human, a horse or a kangaroo had broken it or been that way. They found your track fast enough, but one evening it came to an end quite suddenly, and weren't they all surprised! I heard from a Trooper's horse—(such a nice horse he was!)—that the trackers and white Humans said it was just as if you had disappeared into the sky! There was just a bit of your fur on a bush, and nothing anywhere else but a Kangaroo's trail. No one could make it out."
"That was when I took you in my pouch!" exclaimed the Kangaroo.
"Now," said the Wagtail, "most of them have given up the search. Just this evening Dot's father and a few other Humans came back, and the yellow sheep dog told me the last big party is to start at noon to-morrow, and after that there will be no more attempt to find Dot. Only the sheep dog said he heard his master say he would go on hunting alone, until he found her body. I haven't been over there to-day," wound up the bird, "they are all so miserable and tired, it gave me the blues yesterday."
"What are we to do? It is quite dark and late!" asked the Kangaroo.
"You had better stay here," counselled the Wagtail. "One night more or less doesn't matter, and I don't like leaving Chip-pi-ti-chip at night-time. She likes me to sing to her all night, because she is nervous. I will go with you to-morrow morning early, if you will wait here until then."
"Having found your lost way so far!" said the Kangaroo to Dot, "it would be a pity to risk losing it again, so we had better wait for Willy Wagtail to guide us to-morrow."
To tell the truth, the Kangaroo was very glad of the excuse to keep Dot one night more before parting from her. "It will seem like losing my little Joey again, when I am once more alone," she said sadly.
"But you will never go far away," said Dot. "I should cry, if I thought you would never come to see me. You will live on our selection, won't you?"
But the Kangaroo looked very doubtful, and said that she loved Dot, but she was afraid of Humans and their dogs.
DOT'S FATHER ABOUT TO SHOOT THE KANGAROODOT'S FATHER ABOUT TO SHOOT THE KANGAROO
After a supper of berries and grass, Dot and the Kangaroo lay down for the night in a little bower of bushes. But they talked until very late, of how they were to manage to reach Dot's home without danger from guns and dogs. Atlast, when they tried to sleep, they could not do so on account of Willy Wagtail's singing to his sweetheart, "Sweet pretty creature! Sweet pretty creature!" without stopping, for more than five minutes at a time.
"I wonder Chip-pi-ti-chip doesn't get tired of that song," said Dot.
"She never does," yawned the Kangaroo, "and he never tires of singing it."
"Sweet pretty creature," sang Willy Wagtail.
Two men were walking near a cottage in the winter sunlight of the early morning. There came to the door a young woman, who looked pale and tired. She carried a bowl of milk to a little calf, and on her way back to the cottage she paused, and shading her eyes, that were red with weeping, lingered awhile, looking far and near. Then, with a sigh, she returned indoors and worked restlessly at her household duties.
"It breaks my heart to see my wife do that," said the taller man, who carried a gun. "All day long she comes out and looks for the child. One knows, now, that the poor little one can never come back to us," and as the big man spoke there was a queer choking in his voice.
The younger man did not speak, but he patted his friend's shoulder in a kindly manner, which showed that he too was very sorry.
"Even you have lost heart, Jack," said the big bushman, "but we shall find her yet; the wife shall have that comfort."
"You'll never do it now," said the young fellow with a mournful shake of the head. "There is not an inch of ground that so young a child could reach that we have not searched. The mystery is, what could have become of her?"
"That's what beats me," said the tall man, who was Dot's father. "I think of it all day and all night. There is the track of the dear little mite as clear as possible for five miles, as far as the dry creek. The trackers say she rested her poor weary legs by sitting under the blackbutt tree. At that point she vanishes completely. The blacks say there isn't a trace of man, or beast, beyond that place excepting the trail of a big kangaroo. As you say, it's a mystery!"
As the men walked towards the bush, close to the place where Dot had run after the hare the day she was lost, neither of them noticed the fuss and scolding made by a Willy Wagtail; although the little bird seemed likely to die of excitement.
Willy Wagtail was really saying, "Dot and her Kangaroo are coming this way. Whatever you do, don't shoot them with that gun."
Presently the young man, Jack, noticed the little bird. "What friendly little chaps those wagtails are," he said, "and see how tame and fearless this one is. Upon my word, he nearly flew in your face that time!"
DOT WAVING ADIEU TO THE KANGAROODOT WAVING ADIEU TO THE KANGAROO
Dot's father did not notice the remark, for he had stopped suddenly, and was peering into the bush whilst he quietly shifted his gun into position, ready to raise it and fire.
"By Jove!" he said, "I saw the head of a Kangaroo a moment ago behind that iron-bark. Fancy it's coming so near the house. Next time it shows, I'll get a shot at it."
Both men waited for the moment when the Kangaroo should be seen again.
The next instant the Kangaroo bounded out of the Bush into the open paddock. Swift as lightning up went the cruel gun, but, as it exploded with a terrible report, the man, Jack, struck it upwards, and the fatal bullet lodged in the branch of a tall gum tree.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Jack, pointing at the Kangaroo.
"Dot!" cried her father, dropping his gun, and stumbling blindly forward with outstretched arms, towards his little girl, who had just tumbled out of the Kangaroo's pouch in her hurry to reach her father.
"Hoo! hoo! ho! ho! he! he! ha! ha! ha! ha!" laughed a Kookooburra on a tree, as he saw Dot clasped in her father's great strong arms, and the little face hidden in his big brown beard.
"Wife! wife!" shouted Dot's father, "Dot's come back! Dot's come back!"
"Dot's here!" yelled the young man, as he ran like mad to the house. And all the time the good Kangaroo sat up on her haunches, still panting with fear from the sound of the gun, and a little afraid to stay, yet so interested in all the excitement and delight, that she couldn't make up her mind to hop away.
"Dadda," said Dot, "You nearly killed Dot and her Kangaroo! Oh! if you'd killed my Kangaroo, I'd never have been happy any more!"
"But I don't understand," said her father. "How did you come to be in the Kangaroo's pouch?"
"Oh! I've got lots and lots to tell you!" said Dot; "but come and stroke dear Kangaroo, who saved little Dot and brought her home."
"That I will!" said Dot's father, "and never more will I hurt a Kangaroo!"
"Nor any of the Bush creatures," said Dot. "Promise, Dadda!"
"I promise," said the big man, in a queer-sounding voice, as he kissed Dot over and over again, and walked towards the frightened animal.
Dot wriggled down from her father's arms, and said to the Kangaroo, "It's all right; no one's ever going to be shot or hurt here again!" and the Kangaroo looked delighted at the good news.
"Dadda," said Dot, holding her father's hand, and, with her disengaged hand touching the Kangaroo's little paw. "This is my own dear Kangaroo." Dot's father, not knowing quite how to show his gratitude, stroked the Kangaroo's head, and said "How do you do?" which, when he came to think of it afterwards, seemed rather a foolish thing to say. But he wasn't used, like Dot, to talking to Bush creatures, and had not eaten the berries of understanding.
The Kangaroo saw that Dot's father was grateful, and so she was pleased, but she did not like to be stroked by a man who let off guns, so she was glad that Dot's mother had run to where they were standing, and was hugging and kissing the little girl, and crying all the time; for then Dot's father turned and watched his wife and child, and kept doing something to his eyes with a handkerchief, so that there was no attention to spare for Kangaroos.
The good Kangaroo, seeing how happy these people were, and knowing that her life was quite safe, wanted to peep about Dot's home and see what it was like—for kangaroos can't help being curious. So presently she quietly hopped off towards the cottage, and then a very strange thing happened. Just as the Kangaroo was wondering what the great iron tank by the kitchen door was meant for, there popped out of the open door a joey Kangaroo. Now, to human beings, all joey Kangaroos look alike, but amongst Kangaroos there are no two the same, and Dot's Kangaroo at once recognised in the little Joey her own baby Kangaroo. The Joey knew its mother directly, and, whilst Dot's Kangaroo was too astonished to move, and not being able to think, was trying to get at a conclusion why her Joey was coming out of a cottage, the little Kangaroo, with a hop-skip-and-a-jump, had landed itself comfortably in the nice pouch Dot had just vacated.
Then Dot's mother, rejoicing over the safe return of her little girl, was not more happy than the Kangaroo with her Joey once more in her pouch. With big bounds she leapt towards Dot, and the little girl suddenly looking round for her Kangaroo friend, clapped her hands with delight as she saw a little grey nose, a pair of tiny black paws, and the point of a little black tail, hanging out of the pouch that had carried her so often.
"Why!" exclaimed Dot's mother, "if she hasn't got the little Joey, Jack brought me yesterday! He picked it up after a Kangaroo hunt some time ago."
"It's her Joey; her lost Joey!" cried Dot, running to the Kangaroo. "Oh! dear Kangaroo, I am so glad!" she said, "for now we are all happy; as happy as can be!" Dot hugged her Kangaroo, and kissed the little Joey, and they all threetalked together, so that none of them understood what the others were saying, only that they were all much pleased and delighted.
"Wife," said Dot's father, "I'll tell you what's mighty queer, our little girl is talking away to those animals, and they're all understanding one another, as if it was the most natural thing in the world to treat Kangaroos as if they were human beings!"
"I expect," said his wife, "that their feelings are not much different from ours. See how that poor animal is rejoicing in getting back its little one, just as we are over having our little Dot again."
"To think of all the poor things I have killed," said Dot's father sadly; "I'll never do it again."
"No," said his wife, "we must try and get everyone to be kind to the bush creatures, and protect them all we can."
This book would never come to an end if it told all that passed that day. How Dot explained the wonderful power of the berries of understanding, and how she told the kangaroos all that her parents wanted her to say on their behalf, and what kind things the Kangaroo said in return.
All day long the Kangaroo stayed near Dot's home, and the little girl persuaded her to eat bread, which she said was "most delicious, but one would get tired of it sooner than of grass."
Every effort was made by Dot and her parents to get the Kangaroo to live on their selection, so that they might protect her from harm. But she said that she liked her own free life best, only she would never go far away and would come often to see Dot. At sunset she said good-bye to Dot, a little sadly, and the child stood in the rosy light of the afterglow, waving her hand, as she saw her kind animal friend hop away and disappear into the dark shadow of the Bush.
She wandered about for some time listening to the voices of birds and creatures, who came to tell her how glad everyone was that her way had been found, and that no harm was to befall them in future. The news of her safe return, and of the Kangaroo's finding her Joey, had been spread far and near, by Willy Wagtail and the Kookooburra; and she could hear the shouts of laughter from kookooburras telling the story until nearly dark.
Quite late at night she was visited by the Opossum, the Native Bear, and the Nightjar, who entered by the open window, and, sitting in the moonlight, conversed about the day's events. They said that their whole rest and sleep had been disturbed by the noise and excitement of the day creatures spreading thenews through the Bush. The Mo-poke wished to sing a sad song because Dot was feeling happy, but the Opossum warned it that it was sitting in a draught on the window sill and might spoil its beautiful voice, so it flew away and only sang in the distance. The Native Bear said that the story of Dot's return and the finding of Kangaroo's Joey was so strange that it made its head feel quite empty. The Opossum inspected everything in Dot's room, and tried to fight itself in the looking-glass. It then got the Koala to look into the mirror also, and said it would get an idea into its little empty head if it did. When the Koala had taken a timid peep at itself, the Opossum said that the Koala now had an idea of how stupid it looked, and the little bear went off to get used to having an idea in its head. The Opossum was so pleased with its spiteful joke that it hastily said good night, and hurried away to tell it to the other 'possums.
Gradually the voices of the creatures outside became more and more faint and indistinct; and then Dot slept in the grey light of the dawn.
When she went out in the morning, the kookooburras were gurgling and laughing, the magpies were warbling, the parrakeets made their twittering, and Willy Wagtail was most lively; but Dot was astonished to find that she could not understand what any of the creatures said, although they were all very friendly towards her. When the Kangaroo came to see her she made signs that she wanted some berries of understanding, but, strange as it may seem, the Kangaroo pretended not to understand. Dot has often wondered why the Kangaroo would not understand, but, remembering what that considerate animal had said when she first gave her the berries, she is inclined to think that the Kangaroo is afraid of her learning too much, and thereby getting indigestion. Dot and her parents have often sought for the berries, but up to now they have failed to find them. There is something very mysterious about those berries!
During that day every creature Dot had known in the Bush came to see her, for they all knew that their lives were safe now, so they were not afraid. It greatly surprised Dot's parents to see such numbers of birds and animals coming around their little girl, and they thought it very pretty when in the evening a flock of Native Companions settled down, and danced their graceful dance with the little girl joining in the game.
"It seems to me, wife," said Dot's father with a glad laugh, "that the place has become a regular menagerie!"
BY THE LAKE (EVENING)BY THE LAKE (EVENING)
Later on, Dot's father made a dam on a hollow piece of ground near the house, which soon became full of water, and is surrounded by beautiful willowtrees. There all the thirsty creatures come to drink in safety. And very pretty it is, to sit on the verandah of that happy home, and see Dot playing near the water surrounded by her Bush friends, who come and go as they please, and play with the little girl beside the pretty lake. And no one in all the Gabblebabble district hurts a bush creature, because they are all called "Dot's friends."
Before putting away the pen and closing the inkstand, now that Dot has said all she wishes to be recorded of her bewildering adventures, the writer would like to warn little people, that the best thing to do when one is lost in the bush, is to sit still in one place, and not to try to find one's way home at all. If Dot had done this, and had not gone off in the Kangaroo's pouch, she would have been found almost directly. As the more one tries to find one's way home, the more one gets lost, and as helpful Kangaroos like Dot's are very scarce, the best way to get found quickly, is to wait in one place until the search parties find one. Don't forget this advice! And don't eat any strange berries in the bush, unless a Kangaroo brings them to you.
W. C. Penfold & Co. Ltd., Printers, Sydney, Australia
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