Part 5 (2/2)
”No When I's, and meat”
”Dear me!” said the Koala ”They're all new to one Is it far? I should like to see the trees they grow on Please show row on trees, and I don't knoay home It's lost, you see”
”I don't see,” said the Native Bear ”I never can see far at night, and not at all in daylight That is why I caht, and I couldn't make out what it was, so I caet a near view of it I don't feel happy if I don't know all about it Aren't you cold?”
”Yes, I aaroo left ain,” said the Koala, plaintively
”What has a Kangaroo got to do with your feeling cold? What have you done with your fur?”
”I never had any,” said Dot, ”only these curls,” and she touched her little head
”Then you ought to be black,” argued the Koala ”You're not the right colour Only Blacks have no fur, but what they steal from the proper owners Do you steal fur?” it asked in an anxious voice
”How do they steal fur?” asked Dot
The Koala looked very miserable, and spoke with horror ”They kill us with spears, and tear off our skins and wear theood”
”That's not stealing,” said Dot; ”that's killing”; and, although it seemed very difficult tois taking away another person's things; and when a person is dead he hasn't anything belonging to hied to hier--that is, if it doesn't belong to anyone else”
”You make my head feel e; for an animal's skin and fur is his own, and it's his life's business to keep it whole Everyone in the bush is trying to keep his skin whole, all day long, and all night too Good gracious! what is the matter up there?”
A terrible hullabaloo between a pair of Opossuum tree arrested the attention of both Dot and the Koala Presently the sounds of snarling, spitting, and screa ended, and an Opossuht shone on his grey fur like silver There he res to his rowled back equally unpleasant reu all day and half the night too?” shouted the Opossury before daylight is over and hate going out in the light”
”Get them yourself, you lazy loon!” retorted the lady Opossuain this way, I'll make your fur fly”
”Take care!” barked back her husband, ”or I'll bring you off that branch pretty quickly”
”You'd better try!” sneered his wife ”Reht!”
The taunt was too much for the Opossum on the branch; he scuttled up the tree to reach hisforward fro with her legs all spread out, so that the skinny flaps were like furry wings By thison the earth, a moment after, she had scrambled up another tree, followed by her mate From tree to tree, frorowls, screaht
”How unhappy those poor Opossu in the same tree,” said Dot; ”why don't they live in different trees?”
”They wouldn't be happy,” observed the Koala, ”they are so fond of one another”
”Then why do they quarrel?” asked Dot
”Because they live in the same tree of course,” said the Koala ”If they lived in different trees, and never quarrelled, they wouldn't like it at all They'd find life dull, and they'd get sulky There's nothing worse than a sulky 'possum They are champions at that”
”They ,” said Dot ”They are nearly as bad as the Flying Foxes over there I wonder if they made that fearful sound I heard just before you came?”