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[Illustration: Dot and the Kangaroo]
* * * * *
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And at all Booksellers
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DOT AND THE KANGAROO
By ETHEL C. PEDLEY
WITH 19 FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
By FRANK P. MAHONY
THE BOOKMAN (London):--"Miss Pedley has written a story for Australian
children, but children of all countries will be the better for reading
it.... In the end a double joy is waiting for the reader, for Dot finds
again her home and her loving mother, and the faithful kangaroo finds
its lost baby. Quite the right ending for Christmas-tide."
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD:--"'Dot and the Kangaroo' is without doubt one of
the most charming books that could be put into the hands of a child. It
is admirably illustrated by Frank P. Mahony, who seems to have entered
thoroughly into the animal world of Australia. The story is altogether
Australian.... It is told so simply, and yet so artistically, that even
the 'grown-ups' amongst us must enjoy it."
DAILY MAIL (Brisbane):--"A more fascinating study for Australian
children is hardly conceivable, and it endows the numerous bush animals
with human speech, and reproduces a variety of amusing conversations
between them and Dot, the little heroine of the book.... Adults may read
it with pleasure."
FREEMAN'S JOURNAL (Sydney):--"Miss Pedley brings much of graceful fancy
and happy descriptive faculty to her narrative of 'Dot and the
Kangaroo.'... The volume furnishes excellent reading for young folk."
Obtainable in Great Britain from The British Australasian Book-store,
51 High Holborn, London, W.C. 1., and all other Booksellers; and
(_wholesale only_) from The Australian Book Company, 16 Farringdon
Avenue, London, E.C. 4.
_Price 6s._
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DOT AND THE KANGAROO
[Illustration: THE PLATYPUS SINGS OF ANTEDILUVIAN DAYS]
DOT AND THE KANGAROO
BY
ETHEL C. PEDLEY
_With 19 Illustrations by Frank P. Mahony_
AUSTRALIA:
ANGUS & ROBERTSON LTD.
89 CASTLEREAGH STREET, SYDNEY
1920
Printed by W. C. Penfold & Co. Ltd.
88 Pitt Street, Sydney, Australia
Obtainable in Great Britain from The British Australasian Book-store,
51 High Holborn, London, W.C. 1., and from all Booksellers; and
(_wholesale only_) from The Australian Book Company, 16 Farringdon
Avenue, London, E.C. 4.
TO THE
CHILDREN OF AUSTRALIA
IN THE HOPE OF ENLISTING THEIR SYMPATHIES
FOR THE MANY
BEAUTIFUL, AMIABLE, AND FROLICSOME CREATURES
OF THEIR FAIR LAND,
WHOSE EXTINCTION, THROUGH RUTHLESS DESTRUCTION,
IS BEING SURELY ACCOMPLISHED
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
THE PLATYPUS SINGS OF ANTEDILUVIAN DAYS _frontispiece_
THE KANGAROO FINDS DOT 2
THE FIGHT BETWEEN THE KOOKOOBURRA AND THE SNAKE 14
DOT AND THE KANGAROO ON THEIR WAY TO THE PLATYPUS 18
THE PREHISTORIC CREATURES OF THE SONG 22
DOT DANCES WITH THE NATIVE COMPANIONS 26
DOT, THE NATIVE BEAR, AND THE OPOSSUM 34
THE CORROBOREE 36
A LEAP FOR LIFE 44
THE BITTERN HELPS DOT 48
THE BOWER BIRDS 56
THE EMUS HUNTING THE SHEEP 60
THE COURT OF ANIMALS 64
THE COCKATOO JUDGE 66
THE PELICAN OPENS THE CASE 68
THE KANGAROO CARRIES DOT OUT OF COURT 72
DOT'S FATHER ABOUT TO SHOOT THE KANGAROO 74
DOT WAVING ADIEU TO THE KANGAROO 76
BY THE LAKE (EVENING) 80
DOT AND THE KANGAROO
CHAPTER I
Little Dot had lost her way in the bush. She knew it, and was very
frightened.
She was too frightened in fact to cry, but stood in the middle of a
little dry, bare space, looking around her at the scraggy growths of
prickly shrubs that had torn her little dress to rags, scratched her
bare legs and feet till they bled, and pricked her hands and arms as
she had pushed madly through the bushes, for hours, seeking her home.
Sometimes she looked up to the sky. But little of it could be seen
because of the great tall trees that seemed to her to be trying to reach
heaven with their far-off crooked branches. She could see little patches
of blue sky between the tangled tufts of drooping leaves, and, as the
dazzling sunlight had faded, she began to think it was getting late, and
that very soon it would be night.
The thought of being lost and alone in the wild bush at night, took her
breath away with fear, and made her tired little legs tremble under her.
She gave up all hope of finding her home, and sat down at the foot of
the biggest blackbutt tree, with her face buried in her hands and knees,
and thought of all that had happened, and what might happen yet.
It seemed such a long, long time since her mother had told her that she
might gather some bush flowers whilst she cooked the dinner, and Dot
recollected how she was bid not to go out of sight of the cottage. How
she wished now that she had remembered this sooner! But whilst she was
picking the pretty flowers, a hare suddenly started at her feet and
sprang away into the bush, and she had run after it. When she found that
she could not catch the hare, she discovered that she could no longer
see the cottage. After wandering for a while she got frightened and ran,
and ran, little knowing that she was going further away from her home at
every step.
Where she was sitting under the blackbutt tree, she was miles away from
her father's selection, and it would be very difficult for anyone to
find her. She felt that she was a long way off, and she began to think
of what was happening at home. She remembered how, not very long ago, a
neighbour's little boy had been lost, and how his mother had come to
their cottage for help to find him, and that her father had ridden off
on the big bay horse to bring men from all the selections around to help
in the search. She remembered their coming back in the darkness; numbers
of strange men she had never seen before. Old men, young men, and boys,
all on their rough-coated horses, and how they came indoors, and what a
noise they made all talking together in their big deep voices. They
looked terrible men, so tall and brown and fierce, with their rough
bristly beards; and they all spoke in such funny tones to her, as if
they were trying to make their voices small.
During many days these men came and went, and every time they were more
sad, and less noisy. The little boy's mother used to come and stay,
crying, whilst the men were searching the bush for her little son. Then,
one evening, Dot's father came home alone, and both her mother and the
little boy's mother went away in a great hurry. Then, very late, her
mother came back crying, and her father sat smoking by the fire looking
very sad, and she never saw that little boy again, although he had been
found.
She wondered now if all these rough, big men were riding into the bush
to find her, and if, after many days, they would find her, and no one
ever see her again. She seemed to see her mother crying, and her father
very sad, and all the men very solemn. These thoughts made her so
miserable that she began to cry herself.
Dot does not know how long she was sobbing in loneliness and fear, with
her head on her knees, and with her little hands covering her eyes so as
not to see the cruel wild bush in which she was lost. It seemed a long
time before she summoned up courage to uncover her weeping eyes, and
look once more at the bare, dry earth, and the wilderness of scrub and
trees that seemed to close her in as if she were in a prison. When she
did look up, she was surprised to see that she was no longer alone. She
forgot all her trouble and fear in her astonishment at seeing a big grey
Kangaroo squatting quite close to her, in front of her.
[Illustration: THE KANGAROO FINDS DOT]
What was most surprising was that the Kangaroo evidently understood that
Dot was in trouble, and was sorry for her; for down the animal's nice
soft grey muzzle two tiny little tears were slowly trickling. When Dot
looked up at it with wonder in her round blue eyes, the Kangaroo did not
jump away, but remained gazing sympathetically at Dot with a slightly
puzzled air. Suddenly the big animal seemed to have an idea, and it
lightly hopped off into the scrub, where Dot could just see it bobbing
up and down as if it were hunting for something. Presently back came the
strange Kangaroo with a spray of berries in her funny black hands. They
were pretty berries. Some were green, some were red, some blue, and
others white. Dot was quite glad to take them when the Kangaroo offered
them to her; and as this friendly animal seemed to wish her to eat them,
she did so gladly, because she was beginning to feel hungry.
After she had eaten a few berries a very strange thing happened. While
Dot had been alone in the bush it had all seemed so dreadfully still.
There had been no sound but the gentle stir of a light, fitful breeze
in the far-away tree-tops. All around had been so quiet, that her
loneliness had seemed twenty times more lonely. Now, however, under the
influence of these small, sweet berries, Dot was surprised to hear
voices everywhere. At first it seemed like hearing sounds in a dream,
they were so faint and distant, but soon the talking grew nearer and
nearer, louder and clearer, until the whole bush seemed filled with
talking.
They were all little voices, some indeed quite tiny whispers and
squeaks, but they were very numerous, and seemed to be everywhere. They
came from the earth, from the bushes, from the trees, and from the very
air. The little girl looked round to see where they came from, but
everything looked just the same. Hundreds of ants, of all kinds and
sizes, were hurrying to their nests; a few lizards were scuttling about
amongst the dry twigs and sparse grasses; there were some grasshoppers,
and in the trees birds fluttered to and fro. Then Dot knew that she was
hearing, and understanding, everything that was being said by all the
insects and creatures in the bush.
All this time the Kangaroo had been speaking, only Dot had been too
surprised to listen. But now the gentle, soft voice of the kind animal
caught her attention, and she found that the Kangaroo was in the middle
of a speech.
"I understood what was the matter with you at once," she was saying,
"for I feel just the same myself. I have been miserable, like you, ever
since I lost my baby kangaroo. You also must have lost something. Tell
me what it is?"
"I've lost my way," said Dot; rather wondering if the Kangaroo would
understand her.
"Ah!" said the Kangaroo, quite delighted at her own cleverness, "I knew
you had lost something! Isn't it a dreadful feeling? You feel as if you
had no inside, don't you? And you're not inclined to eat anything--not
even the youngest grass. I have been like that ever since I lost my baby
kangaroo. Now tell me," said the creature confidentially, "what your way
is like, I may be able to find it for you."
Dot found that she must explain what she meant by saying she had "lost
her way," and the Kangaroo was much interested.
"Well," said she, after listening to the little girl, "that is just like
you Humans; you are not fit for this country at all! Of course, if you
have only one home in one place, you _must_ lose it! If you made your
home everywhere and anywhere, it would never be lost. Humans are no good
in our bush," she continued. "Just look at yourself now. How do you
compare with a kangaroo? There is your ridiculous sham coat. Well, you
have lost bits of it all the way you have come to-day, and you're nearly
left in your bare skin. Now look at _my_ coat. I've done ever so much
more hopping than you to-day, and you see I'm none the worse. I wonder
why all your fur grows upon the top of your head," she said
reflectively, as she looked curiously at Dot's long flaxen curls. "It's
such a silly place to have one's fur the thickest! You see, we have very
little there; for we don't want our heads made any hotter under the
Australian sun. See how much better off you would be, now that nearly
all your sham coat is gone, if that useless fur had been chopped into
little, short lengths, and spread all over your poor bare body. I wonder
why you Humans are made so badly," she ended, with a puzzled air.
Dot felt for a moment as if she ought to apologise for being so unfit
for the bush, and for having all the fur on the top of her head. But,
somehow, she had an idea that a little girl must be something better
than a kangaroo, although the Kangaroo certainly seemed a very superior
person; so she said nothing, but again began to eat the berries.
"You must not eat any more of these berries," said the Kangaroo,
anxiously.
"Why?" asked Dot, "they are very nice, and I'm very hungry."
The Kangaroo gently took the spray out of Dot's hand, and threw it away.
"You see," she said, "if you eat too many of them, you'll know too
much."
"One can't know too much," argued the little girl.
"Yes you can, though," said the Kangaroo, quickly. "If you eat too many
of those berries, you'll learn too much, and that gives you indigestion,
and then you become miserable. I don't want you to be miserable any
more, for I'm going to find your 'lost way.'"
The mention of finding her way reminded the little girl of her sad
position, which, in her wonder at talking with the Kangaroo, had been
quite forgotten for a little while. She became sad again; and seeing how
dim the light was getting, her thoughts went back to her parents. She
longed to be with them to be kissed and cuddled, and her blue eyes
filled with tears.
"Your eyes just now remind me of two fringed violets, with the morning
dew on them, or after a shower," said the Kangaroo. "Why are you
crying?"
"I was thinking," said Dot.
"Oh! don't think!" pleaded the Kangaroo; "I never do myself."
"I can't help it!" explained the little girl. "What do you do instead?"
she asked.
"I always jump to conclusions," said the Kangaroo, and she promptly
bounded ten feet at one hop. Lightly springing back again to her
position in front of the child, she added, "and that's why I never have
a headache."
"Dear Kangaroo," said Dot, "do you know where I can get some water? I'm
very thirsty!"
"Of course you are," said her friend; "everyone is at sundown. I'm
thirsty myself. But the nearest water-hole is a longish way off, so we
had better start at once."
Little Dot got up with an effort. After her long run and fatigue, she
was very stiff, and her little legs were so tired and weak, that after a
few steps she staggered and fell.
The Kangaroo looked at the child compassionately. "Poor little Human,"
she said, "your legs aren't much good, and, for the life of me, I don't
understand how you can expect to get along without a tail. The
water-hole is a good way off," she added, with a sigh, as she looked
down at Dot, lying on the ground, and she was very puzzled what to do.
But suddenly she brightened up. "I have an idea," she said joyfully.
"Just step into my pouch, and I'll hop you down to the water-hole in
less time than it takes a locust to shrill."
Timidly and carefully, Dot did the Kangaroo's bidding, and found herself
in the cosiest, softest little bag imaginable. The Kangaroo seemed
overjoyed, when Dot was comfortably settled in her pouch. "I feel as if
I had my dear baby kangaroo again!" she exclaimed; and immediately she
bounded away through the tangled scrub, over stones and bushes, over dry
water-courses and great fallen trees. And all Dot felt was a gentle
rocking motion, and a fresh breeze in her face, which made her so
cheerful that she sang this song:--
If you want to go quick,
I will tell you a trick
For the bush, where there isn't a train.
With a hulla-buloo,
Hail a big kangaroo--
But be sure that your weight she'll sustain--
Then with hop, and with skip,
She will take you a trip
With the speed of the very best steed;
And, this is a truth for which I can vouch,
There's no carriage can equal a kangaroo's pouch.
Oh! where is a friend so strong and true
As a dear big, bounding kangaroo?
"Good bye! Good bye!"
The lizards all cry,
Each drying its eyes with its tail.
"Adieu! Adieu!
Dear kangaroo!"
The scared little grasshoppers wail.
"They're going express
To a distant address,"
Says the bandicoot, ready to scoot;
And your path is well cleared for your progress, I vouch,
When you ride through the bush in a kangaroo's pouch.
Oh! where is a friend so strong and true
As a dear big, bounding kangaroo?
"Away and away!"
You will certainly say,
"To the end of the farthest blue--
To the verge of the sky,
And the far hills high,
O take me with thee, kangaroo!
We will seek for the end,
Where the broad plains tend,
E'en as far as the evening star.
Why, the end of the world we can reach, I vouch,
Dear kangaroo, with me in your pouch."
Oh! where is a friend so strong and true
As a dear big, bounding kangaroo?