Dot and the Kangaroo

e wonderful feats of jumping she performed. Poor little Dot, whose busy brain pictured all kinds of terrible fates, was so o

ily followed every movement, as they pursued the hunt on a smoother level below. The blacks were trying to hurry on, so as to cut off the Kangaroo's retreat at a spur of the hill, where, to get away, she would have to leave the rocks and descend towards them. In the meantime Dot's ears were filled with the sounds of snarling snaps from the

ht. Her panting became more and more distressing, and so did her sad moans and flecks of foam from her straining lips fell on Dot's face and hands. Dot knew that her Kangaroo was trying to save h

ut me down; drop Dot anywhere, anyw

sing sound from the brave animal,

e killed,"

another great bound brought them to the spur o

he earth, was a wild spread of morass country-a gloomy, terrible-looking place. To the left was a steep slope of small rocks and stones, leading downwards to the hollow of sedgy land that fringed the cliffs of the chasm. The only retreat possible was to pass down this declivity, and try to escape by the sedgy land, and this is what the black huntsmen

ovement, she found herself standing alone, whilst the Kangaroo hopped forward to the front of a big boulder, as if to meet the dog. Here the poor hunted creature took her stand, with her back close to the rock. Gent

ming in the moonlight. For a few seconds it hesitated to make the attack, and looked back down the slope, to see if the other dogs were coming to help; but they were only just beginning the ascent, and the shouting black fellows were further off still. Then the dog could no longer control its savage nature. It longed to leap at the poor Kangaroo's throat-that pretty furry throat that Dot's arms had so often encircled lovingly, and it was impatient

choking with sobs, could only wail, "Oh! dear Kangaroo! my dear Kangaroo! Don't kill my d

-the long sharp claw in her foot. Whilst she held the dog in her arms, she raised her powerful leg, and with that long, strong claw, tore open the dog's body. The dog yelped in pain as the Kangaroo threw it to the ground, where it lay rolling in agony and dying; for the Kangaroo had given it a terrible wound. The other dogs were still some distance below, and the cries of their companion caused them to pause in fear and wonder, while the black men could be seen advancing in the dim light, flourishing their spears and boomerangs. It was impossible to retreat that way; and where Dot and her Kangaroo were, they were hemmed in by a rocky cliff and t

f noises in her ears. She could see when they reached the grassy fringe of the precipice, where the Kangaroo was able to quicken her pace, and literally seemed to fly to their fate. Then came the last bound before the great spring. Dot h

would fall backward and drop deep into the gully below, to be dashed to pieces on the rocks and the tree tops. But God did help Dot's Kangaroo; the little reeds and rushes held tightly in the earth, and the poor struggling animal, exerting all her remaining strength, gained the reedy

!" cried Dot, wringing her hands, and burying h

aroo, "make a noise! C

now she turned, and could hear the blacks, urging on their dogs as they were making an attempt to skirt round the precipice, and gain the other side o

d, and could hear those awesome voices all around, and the echoes made them still more hobgoblinish. The Kangaroo's eyes brightened, as she restrained her panting, and listened also. "Go on," she said, "we're safe now," so Dot made

g them on the breeze; and they never stopped running until they regained the light of their camp fires. There they told the gins, in awe-struck voices, how it had been no Kangaroo they had hunted, but the "Bunyip", who had pretended to be one. And the black gins' eyes grew wider and wider, and they made strange noises and exclamations, as they listened to the story of how

aroo, who, however, was too exhausted to rejoice at their escape. She still lay where sh

eel. Dot's little heart swelled within her, and taking the poor animal's drooping head on her lap, she sat

voice: "Then it was a human picaninny, after

a brown bird on long legs, standing with its feet close together, wi

ird annoyed her in her sorrow. Without answering, she bent her head closer down to that of her poor friend

nd her companion, and eyed them both in the same perky manner. "Friend Kangaroo's in a bad w

I do?" whi

usly. "What fools Humans are," it exclaimed to itself. "And I suppose you will

" said Dot, now fully atte

a hole in it, will fill with water. Why, I'd do it myself, in a moment, only your claw

her tongue moistened and returned to the mouth, and at last Dot saw with joy the brown eyes open, and she knew that her good friend was not going to die, but would get well again. Whilst all this took place, the little brown bird stood on one leg, with its head cocked on one side, watching the Kangaroo's recovery with a comic expression of curiosity and conceit. When it spoke to Dot, it did so without any attempt at being polite, and Dot thought it the strangest possible creature, because it was really very kind in helping to save the Kan

roo presently struggled up and squatted rather feebly

ear me, how everything seems to dance up and

, patronizingly, as if jumps for life like that of Dot's

aroo, opening her eyes again an

d have been to you with the blacks, and their dogs after you, if we Bitterns hadn't played that old trick of ours of scaring them with our

irst time you have saved Kangaroos by your cleverness. I didn't know you Bitt

"You needn't trouble me with thanks," it said indifferently, "we didn't do it to save you, but for our own fun. As for that little stupi

Dot, "and showed me how to get

few steps it turned round and said to the Kangaroo, roughly, "If you hop that way, keeping to the side of the sedges, and go half a dozen small hops beyond that white gum