Читать книгу Dot and the Kangaroo - Ethel C Pedley - Страница 4

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. Now, however, under the influence of these small, sweet berries, Dot was surprised to hear voices everywhere. At first it seemed like hearing sounds in a dream, they were so faint and distant, but soon the talking grew nearer and nearer, louder and clearer, until the whole bush seemed filled with talking.

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, from the trees, and from the very air. The little 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 sparse grasses; there were some grasshoppers, 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 time the Kangaroo had been speaking, only Dot had been too surprised to listen. But now the gentle, soft voice of the kind animal caught her attention, and she found the Kangaroo was in the middle of a speech.

“I understood what was the matter with you at once,” she was saying, “for I feel just the same myself. I have been miserable, like you, ever since I lost my baby Kangaroo. You also must have lost something. Tell me what it is?”

“I’ve lost my way,” said Dot; rather wondering if the Kangaroo would understand her.

“Ah!” said the Kangaroo, quite delighted at her own cleverness, “I knew you had lost something! Isn’t it a dreadful feeling? 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 my baby Kangaroo. Now tell me,” said the creature confidentially, “what your way is like. I may be able to find it for you.”

Dot found that she must explain what she meant by saying she had “lost her way,” and the Kangaroo was much interested.

“Well,” said she, after listening to 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. Humans are no good in our bush,” she continued. “Just look at yourself now. How do you compare with a Kangaroo? 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 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 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 sham coat is gone, 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 a moment as if she ought to apologise for being so unfit for the bush, and for having all the fur on the top of her head. But, somehow, she had an idea that a little girl must be something better than a kangaroo, although the Kangaroo certainly seemed a very superior person; so she said nothing, but again began to eat the berries.

“You must not eat any more of these berries,” said the Kangaroo, anxiously.

“Why?” asked Dot, “they are very nice, and I’m very hungry.”

The Kangaroo gently took the spray out of Dot’s hand, and threw it away. “You see,” she said, “if you eat too many of them, you’ll know too much.”

“One can’t know too much,” argued the little girl.

“Yes you can, though,” said the Kangaroo, quickly. “If you eat too many of those berries, you’ll learn too much, and that gives you indigestion, and then you become miserable. I don’t want you to be miserable any more, for I’m going to find your lost way.”

The mention of finding her way reminded the little girl of her sad position, which, in her wonder at talking with the Kangaroo, had been quite forgotten for a little while. She became sad again; and seeing how dim the light was getting, her thoughts went back to her parents. She longed to be with them to be kissed and cuddled, and her blue eyes filled with tears.

“Your eyes just now remind me of two fringed violets, with the morning dew on them, or after a shower,” said the Kangaroo. “Why are you crying?”

“I was thinking,” said Dot.

“Oh! don’t think!” pleaded the Kangaroo; “I never do myself.”

“I can’t help it!” explained the little girl. “What do you do instead?” she asked.

“I always jump to conclusions,” said the Kangaroo, and she promptly bounded ten feet at one hop. Lightly springing back again to her position in front of the child, she added, “and that’s why I never have a headache.”

“Dear Kangaroo,” said Dot, “do you know where I can get some water? I’m very thirsty!”

“Of course you are,” said her friend; “everyone is at sundown. I’m thirsty myself. But the nearest water-hole is a longish way off, so we had better start at once.”

Little Dot got up with an effort. After her long run and fatigue, she was very stiff, and her little legs were so tired and weak, that after a few steps she staggered and fell.

The Kangaroo looked at the child compassionately. “Poor little Human,” she said, “your legs aren’t much good, and, for the life of me, I don’t understand how you can expect to 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 suddenly she brightened up. “I have an idea,” she said joyfully. “Just step into my pouch, and I’ll hop you down to the water-hole in less time than it takes a locust to shrill.”

Timidly and carefully, Dot did the Kangaroo’s bidding, and found herself in the cosiest, softest little bag imaginable. The Kangaroo seemed overjoyed when Dot was comfortably 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, over dry water-courses and great fallen trees. All Dot felt was a gentle rocking motion, and a fresh breeze in her face, which made her so cheerful that she sang this song:—

If you want to go quick,

I will tell you a trick

For the bush, where there isn’t a train.

With a hulla-buloo,

Hail a big kangaroo—

But be sure that your weight she’ll sustain—

Then with hop, and with skip,

She will take you a trip

With the speed of the very best steed;

And, this is a truth for which I can vouch,

There’s no carriage can equal a kangaroo’s pouch.

Oh! where is a friend so strong and true

As a dear big, bounding kangaroo?

“Good bye! Good bye!”

The lizards all cry,

Each drying its eyes with its tail.

“Adieu! Adieu!

Dear kangaroo!”

The scared little grasshoppers wail.

“They’re going express

To a distant address,”

Says the bandicoot, ready to scoot;

And your path is well cleared for your progress, I vouch,

When you ride through the bush in a kangaroo’s pouch.

Oh! where is a friend so strong and true

As a dear big, bounding kangaroo?

“Away and away!”

You will certainly say,

“To the end of the furthest blue—

To the verge of the sky,

And the far hills high,

O take me with thee, kangaroo!

We will seek for the end,

Where the broad plains tend,

E’en as far as the evening star.

Why, the end of the world we can reach, I vouch,

Dear kangaroo, with me in your pouch.”

Oh! where is a friend so strong and true

As a dear big, bounding kangaroo?