Part 1 (1/2)
Dot and the Kangaroo
by Ethel C Pedley
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 thearound 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 arh 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 see 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 aith fear, and ave up all hope of finding her hoest blackbutt tree, with her face buried in her hands and knees, and thought of all that had happened, and whattiather some bush flohilst 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 re 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 fro 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 as happening at hohbour's little boy had been lost, and how his e for help to find hi bay horse to bring men from all the selections around to help in the search She reeh-coated horses, and how they caether in their big deep voices They looked terrible h bristly beards; and they all spoke in such funny tones to her, as if they were trying tomany days these men came and went, and every time they were more sad, and less noisy The little boy's , whilst thethe bush for her little son Then, one evening, Dot's father came home alone, and both her reat hurry Then, very late, herby 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, biginto the bush to find her, and if, after ain She see, and her father very sad, and all the hts an to cry herself
Dot does not kno 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 seee 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 astonish quite close to her, in front of her
[Illustration: THE KANGAROO FINDS DOT]
What was aroo evidently understood that Dot was in trouble, and was sorry for her; for down the anireyWhen Dot looked up at it onder in her round blue eyes, the Kangaroo did not ju syhtly puzzled air Suddenly the big anihtly hopped off into the scrub, where Dot could just see it bobbing up and down as if it were hunting for soaroo with a spray of berries in her funny black hands They were pretty berries Soreen, solad to take thearoo offered them to her; and as this friendly aniladly, 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 Noever, under the influence of these small, sweet berries, Dot was surprised to hear voices everywhere At first it see sounds in a drearew nearer and nearer, louder and clearer, until the whole bush see
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, froirl looked round to see where they ca looked just the sa to their nests; a few lizards were scuttling about arasses; there were sorasshoppers, 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 ti, only Dot had been too surprised to listen But now the gentle, soft voice of the kind aniaroo was in the middle of a speech
”I understood as the , ”for I feel just the same myself I have been aroo You alsoTell me what it is?”
”I've lost aroo would understand her
”Ah!” said the Kangaroo, quite delighted at her own cleverness, ”I knew you had lost so? 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 aroo Now tell me,” said the creature confidentially, ”what your way is like, I may be able to find it for you”
Dot found that sheshe had ”lost her way,” and the Kangaroo wasto 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 Huood in our bush,” she continued ”Just look at yourself no do you coaroo? 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 _ than you to-day, and you see I'rows 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 shaone, 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 aso unfit for the bush, and for having all the fur on the top of her head But, so better than a kangaroo, although the Kangaroo certainly seean to eat the berries
”You aroo, anxiously
”Why?” asked Dot, ”they are very nice, and I'ently took the spray out of Dot's hand, and threw it away
”You see,” she said, ”if you eat too many of theued the little girl
”Yes you can, though,” said the Kangaroo, quickly ”If you eat too ives you indigestion, and then you become miserable I don't want you to beto find your 'lost way'”