Dot and the Kangaroo

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 ti

ff crooked branches. She could see little patches of blue sky between the tangled tufts of her way in the and was very drooping

tle legs tremble under her. She gave up all hope of finding her home, and sat down at the foot of the biggest blackbu

wished now 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 no

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,

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. The

s, they would find her, and no one ever see her again. She seemed to see her mother crying, and her father

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.

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 ber

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 voic

tle 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

rised to listen. But now the gentle, soft voice of the kind animal caugh

feel just the same myself. I have been miserable, like you, ever since I l

t; rather wondering if the

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 si

e meant by saying she had "lost her way

iculous 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

he top of her head. But, somehow, she had an idea that a little girl must be something better than a kangaroo, alth

e of these berries," said

hey are very nice, a

hand, and threw it away. "You see," she said, "i

too much," argue

ies, you'll learn too much, and that gives you indigestion, and then you become miser

garoo, had been quite forgotten for a little while. She became sad again; and seeing how dim the light was getting, her t

lets, with the morning dew on them, or after a s

inking,"

leaded the Kangaroo;

d the little girl. "What do

ded ten feet at one hop. Lightly springing back again to her position in

do you know where I can get

sundown. I'm thirsty myself. But the nearest water-hol

atigue, she was very stiff, and her little legs were so ti

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 su

y 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,

ant to g

tell yo

where there

hulla

big k

at your weight

hop, and

take yo

ed of the ve

truth for whi

age can equal a

a friend so s

ig, boundin

ye! Goo

zards

its eyes w

eu!

kanga

ittle grassh

e going

stant a

ndicoot, re

ll cleared for your

ough the bush in

a friend so s

ig, boundin

and

l certa

of the fur

erge of

far hi

with thee,

seek for

broad pl

r as the e

the world we can

o, with me i

a friend so s

ig, boundin