Читать книгу Bush Cobbers - Musette Morell - Страница 4

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Possum, Spiny Ant-eater and Platypus looked as though they meant business as they went bouncing, flouncing along the track. But after a while they stopped and Platypus and Spiny had a conversation.

"I reckon we'll soon have to look for a camp for the night, Spiny."

"It's too soon to call a halt yet, Plat. Why, I can still see my home rock."

"Um, come to think of it, I can still see my home pool."

"Wish old Sun would stay up a bit longer to shine for us. It gets so dark when he goes to bed and draws the curtains."

"Better get on, then, before the dark gets darker."

So off went the three again, Platypus waddling along, on his webbed feet; Spiny shuffling along, looking like a walking pin-cushion, with his nose poking out and snuffling as it waggled from side to side; and Possum scrambling in between, or sometimes running ahead to turn a somersault.

Then suddenly a loud noise split the air.

Platypus opened his eyes and duck-bill wide, and kept them open. Spiny hurriedly wedged himself in under a rock, and curled into a round ball. And Possum went flip up into a branch of the nearest tree and crouching low, shivered.

"Ooooooo!" shivered possum. "Ooooooo!"

When Platypus heard Possum shiver he puffed himself out very big and said in his bravest voice, "D-don't be scares-flarey. Possum—I'm here!"

And Spiny uncurled himself, wriggled out from under his rock, and said, "Don't get upsey-dupsev, Possum—I'm here." Then his nose twitched as he sniffed the air. "Uff, uff!...I smell dog."

Possum, high in her tree, shivered, and her shivering set the leaves quivering. Then the loud noise sounded again. Possum shivered herself nearly out of the tree, and Platypus cried in his loudest voice, "Whichever animal is frightening Possum will have to stop, or I'll get annoyed."

And Spiny made his quills bristle as he shouted, "And I'll get annoyed, too—that's what!"

Then they both bellowed, "So there! Take care! Beware!"

A sneering voice replied, "I presume you are talking to me?"

And Platypus shouted, "Yes, we are, whoever you are."

A large strong animal with short upright ears, a tawny-coloured coat, white throat, waistcoat and paws, and a white tip to his thick brush of a tail, stepped out from behind a clump of bushes. The boys drew together as they saw it was the wild dog, Dingo.

Dingo snarled, showing his yellow fangs, and turning to Spiny asked, "Why do you poke your snout out? Do you think it helps you to see?"

This rude remark about Spiny's nose made Platypus angry, and he said, "Spiny can see with his nose—so there! He sees things when he smells them."

"Ho, ho," sneered Dingo. "Ho, ho, is that so? And this time it's a platypus yapping."

"Yes, it is a platypus yapping, I mean talking. And I'd like to say I think it's very rude of you to howl at the top of your bark and frighten our girl friend; she's our cobber, too—that's what!"

"I wasn't trying to frighten your silly Possum. Possums are afraid of me anyway. There'll be a full moon to-night and, as I don't like full moons, I was saying so." And Dingo tilted back his head and let out an extra loud howl, so that the leaves around shivering Possum rattled as though the wind was shaking them.

"Why should a grown-up Dingo bark at the moon?" asked Platypus.

"Dingoes never bark, they howl and bay," snapped Dingo.

"Anyway, barking or baying, it's a very rubbish thing to do, it's—it's puppyish," said Platypus.

"Don't you call me rubbish or puppyish, you childish Platypus," snarled Dingo. "Why, you haven't grown out of your duck's bill yet. And your toes are webbed together like the feet of a chicken. To look at you, one would think you couldn't make up your mind what you meant to be. Ha-ha!" And Dingo sang:

When Platypus was born, his mother

Loved him like she loved his brother.

But no one, even wise old Owl,

Knows if he's flesh or fish or fowl.

This rude song about Platypus made Spiny angry. He stuck out his nose, and turned in his toes and stuttered, "Y-You may not know what my cousin Platypus is, old Dingo, but I—I know. He's a Platypus—that's what!"

Then Dingo flashed his eves back on to Spiny. "And what sort of a what's-this are you?" he asked, and stared first at Spiny's feet, and then at his nose, while he sang:

When Spiny Ant-eater shuffles about

He walks with his front feet pointed out,

And walks with his back feet pointed back.

Will he go forward, or shunt down the track?

He snuffles and waggles his long thin nose.

He waggles his nose wherever he goes.

He's full of conceit, though he's not very big,

And he grunts like his father, old Grunter, the pig.

And Dingo laughed a loud ha-ha!

If an ant-eater could blush, Spiny would have blushed a very bright red; as it was he spluttered so much, he couldn't speak. But Platypus could speak, and he shouted:

"Spiny's father isn't a pig, and don't you tell fibs about him or there'll he a ding-dong row and I'll—"

What he would do was never known, for Dingo laughed so loudly Platypus could not be heard.

But Platypus and Spiny were kindly little fellows, and they didn't like quarrelling. So Spiny said, "If you'll stop laughing at us we'll tell you what we're doing."

"Well, what are you doing?" demanded Dingo.

"We're seeking our fortune—that's what."

"Oh, are you. Well, I know where my fortune is."

"You know?" gasped Spiny and Platypus together.

"Yes, it's down by the creek, where I buried it. And if you want to know what it is—it's three large bones." And Dingo ran off laughing.

"Three bones, that's not much of a fortune," said Platypus. "Well, we'd better get on after our fortune. Slither down from your tree, Possum."

But Possum didn't slither down. She had got over her fright at the dingo and was enjoying herself, having a swing in the trees.

Swish...swish...swish...swish!

"Possum! Come on, Possum!" called the boys.

"Oh, boys, boys, come up and have a swing. It's such fun," cried Possum.

"But we can't swing, Possum."

"Oh, yes, you can. Watch me."

And Possum ran to the tip-end of a high branch so that it dipped down to a neighbour. Then hanging by the curl in her tail, and swinging her body free and over to the new branch, she clutched hold of it tightly with her pink paws, and scrambling up, ran along it to the tip, till it, in turn, dipped to a neighbour. And so on went Possum, turning somersaults in the air from branch to branch and giving her little bird-like cry. The boys could see she was having wonderful fun.

"It looks tip-top—that's what," smiled Spiny.

"It does too, smiled Platypus.

"It is. Come on, come on." Swish...swish!

"We'll try it," said Spiny and Platypus.

Huffing and puffing and tripping and slipping, and sometimes giving each other a leg-up, they at last managed to scramble up the gum. Then, looking around nervously, Platypus said to Spiny and Spiny said to Platypus, "I-I'm the biggest, Spiny, so it's only fair for me to go first."

"I'll try f-f-first if you like, Plat."

"No; i-it's O.K., Spiny."

"B-but really, Plat—"

This might have gone on for ever if Possum hadn't called to them. "Oh, do hurry up boys. You're missing the fun. Why don't you both go together?"

"We will."

So, not wishing to disappoint Possum, and really hoping it might be fun, Spiny and Platypus shut their eyes tight and—. But somehow, Plat's thick flat tail just wouldn't cling. And as Spiny had no tail at all, try as he would, he couldn't hang by it. So, bang! Biff! Bash! Down they crashed through the tree, not on to the ground, but splash into the creek.

And Possum clasped her pink paws and cried, "Oh. dear, now they'll get wet!"