Dot and the Kangaroo

have come back!

r at present," she said, "but one never knows when one will be, so we

us stay,

get to a safe place we must pass their camp. That is a little risky, but we must go that way. We can do this easily if the dogs don't get scent of us, as all the blacks ar

k of blacks, and that word suggested to its empty little head that it must keep its skin whole,

in the Kangaroo's pouch, and the

s as they plunged through the bushes; but after crossing a watercourse, and climbing a stiff hill, sh

ght a murmuring of voices,

said the Kangaroo, "that i

place we can reach some very wild country where it would be hard for them to pursue us. W

fast as the sound of the blacks' corroboree became clearer and clearer, and they neared the scene of the dance. Soon she could hear the stamping of feet, the beating of

he blacks, but every sound of a dog caused it to stop and twist a

the trees ahead of their track, and she knew that in tha

the corroboree. She whispered to Dot that it would be nice for a little Human to see some other Humans after being so long amongst bush creatures, and said, also, that there would be no great danger in hopping to a rock that would com

their skin. Some had only white stripes over the places where their bones were, which made them look like skeletons flitting before the fire, or in and out of the surrounding darkness. The dancing men were divided from the rest of the tribe by a row of fires, which, burning brightly, lit the horrid scene with a lurid red light. The firelight seemed to make the ferocious faces of the dancers still more hideous

"Oh, Kangaroo!" she whispered, "th

s," replied the Kan

ns are not like

ill Kangaroos," said the Kangaroo. "Look there!

s so arranged as to make him look as much like a Kangaroo as possible, whilst he worked a stick which he pretended was a Kangaroo's tail, and hopped about. The other painted savages we

why, a real Kangaroo would have smelt or heard those

Dot; "the black man coul

d that stick isn't any good for a tail, and it has to be worked with those big, clumsy arms. Just see, too, how those skins fit! Why it's enough to make a Kangaroo's sides split with laughter to see such foolery!" Dot's friend peeped at the black's acti

d-up black fellow, and all the rest began to dance around, whilst the sham Kangaroo made belie

n imitation of a collar and cuffs. The fellow tried to act the part of a white man, although he had no more clothes on than the old hat and rags. But, after a great deal of dancing, he strutted about, pulle

but Willy Wagtail says that is just the way Humans go on in the town. Bla

she did not say anything, for it was quite clear in her little mind that black fellows, Kangaroos, and willy wagtails had a very poor opinion of whit

ite little girl," she w

ed her kindly with her

There are hawks, snakes, dingoes and humans, and no one can tell for what good they exist. They must have dropped on to this world by mistake for another, where there could only hav

e that?" asked

o skin rugs, and"-here it hesitated a little, as tho

anxious to know all that she

aroo-tail soup!" said

ot, earnestly, "I will

uite forgotten the perilousness of their position. Perhaps this was because the Kan

dogs that had been prowling around the camp, had caught scent of the Kan

ld hear the sounds of the corroboree give place to a noise of shouting and disorder: the dingo dogs and the Blacks were all in