When Dot awoke, she did so with a start of fear. Something in her sleep
had seemed to tell her that she was in danger. At a first glance she saw
that the Kangaroo had left her, and coiled upon her body was a young black
Snake. Before Dot could move, she heard a voice from a tree, outside the
cave, say, very softly, "Don't be afraid! Keep quite still, and you will
not get hurt. Presently I'll kill that Snake. If I tried to do so now it
might bite you; so let it sleep on."
She looked up in the direction of the tree, and saw a big Kookooburra
perched on a bough, with all the creamy feathers of its breast fluffed
out, and its crest very high. The Kookooburra is one of the jolliest
birds in the bush, and is always cracking jokes, and laughing, but this
one was keeping as quiet as he could. Still he could not be quite serious,
and a smile played all round his huge beak. Dot could see that he was
nearly bursting with suppressed laughter. He kept on saying, under his
breath, "what a joke this is! What a capital joke! How they'll all laugh
when I tell them." Just as if it was the funniest thing in the world to
have a Snake coiled up on one's body--when the horrid thing might bite one
with its poisonous fangs, at any moment!
Dot said she didn't see any joke, and it was no laughing matter.
"To be sure YOU don't see the joke," said the jovial bird. "On-lookers
always see the jokes, and I'm an on-looker. It's not to be expected of
you, because you're not an on-looker;" and he shook with suppressed
laughter again.
"Where is my dear Kangaroo?" asked Dot.
"She has gone to get you some berries for breakfast," said the Kookooburra,
"and she asked me to look after you, and that's why I'm here. That Snake
got on you whilst I flew away to consult my doctor, the White Owl, about
the terrible indigestion I have. He's very difficult to catch awake; for
he's out all night and sleepy all day. He says cockchafers have caused it.
The horny wing-cases and legs are most indigestible, he assures me.
I didn't fancy them much when I ate them last night, so I took his advice
and coughed them up, and I'm no longer feeling depressed. Take my advice,
and don't eat cockchafers, little Human."
Dot did not really hear all this, nor heed the excellent advice of the
Kookooburra, not to eat those hard green beetles that had disagreed with
it, for a little shivering movement had gone through the Snake, and
presently all the scales of its shining black back and rosy underpart
began to move. Dot felt quite sick, as she saw the reptile begin to
uncoil itself, as it lay upon her. She hardly dared to breathe, but lay
as still as if she were dead, so as not to frighten or anger the horrid
creature, which presently seemed to slip like a slimy cord over her bare
little legs, and wriggled away to the entrance of the cave.
With a quick, delighted movement, she sat up, eager to see where the
deadly Snake would go. It was very drowsy, having slept heavily on Dot's
warm little body; so it went slowly towards the bush, to get some frogs
or birds for breakfast. But as it wriggled into the warm morning sunlight
outside, Dot saw a sight that made her clap her hands together with
anxiety for the life of the jolly Kookooburra.
No sooner did the black Snake get outside the cave, than she saw the
Kookooburra fall like a stone from its branch, right on top of the Snake.
For a second, Dot thought the bird must have tumbled down dead, it was
such a sudden fall; but a moment later she saw it flutter on the ground,
in battle with the poisonous reptile, whilst the Snake wriggled, and
coiled its body into hoops and rings. The Kookooburra's strong wings,
beating the air just above the writhing Snake, made a great noise, and the
serpent hissed in its fierce hatred and anger. Then Dot saw that the
Kookooburra's big beak had a firm hold of the Snake by the back of the
neck, and that it was trying to fly upwards with its enemy. In vain the
dreadful creature tried to bite the gallant bird; in vain it hissed and
stuck out its wicked little spiky tongue; in vain it tried to coil itself
round the bird's body; the Kookooburra was too strong and too clever to
lose its hold, or to let the Snake get power over it.
At last Dot saw that the Snake was getting weak, for, little by little,
the Kookooburra was able to rise higher with it, until it reached the
high bough. All the time the Snake was held in the bird's beak, writhing
and coiling in agony; for he knew that the Kookooburra had won the battle.
But, when the noble bird had reached its perch, it did a strange thing;
for it dropped the Snake right down to the ground. Then it flew down
again, and brought the reptile back to the bough, and dropped it once
more--and this it did many times. Each time the Snake moved less and
less, for its back was being broken by these falls. At last the
Kookooburra flew up with its victim for the last time, and, holding it on
the branch with its foot, beat the serpent's head with its great strong
beak. Dot could hear the blows fall,--whack, whack, whack,--as the beak
smote the Snake's head; first on one side, then on the other, until it lay
limp and dead across the bough.
"Ah! ah! ah! Ah! ah! ah!" laughed the Kookooburra, and said to Dot, "Did
you see all that? Wasn't it a joke? What a capital joke! Ha! ha! ha!
ha! ha! Oh! oh! oh! How my sides do ache! What a joke! How they'll
laugh when I tell them." Then came a great flight of kookooburras, for
they had heard the laughter, and all wanted to know what the joke was.
Proudly the Kookooburra told them all about the Snake sleeping on Dot,
and the great fight! All the time, first one kookooburra, and then
another, chuckled over the story, and when it came to an end every bird
dropped its wings, cocked up its tail, and throwing back its head, opened
its great beak, and laughed uproariously together. Dot was nearly
deafened with the noise; for some chuckled, some cackled; some said,
"Ha! ha! ha!" others said, "Oh! oh! oh!" and as soon as one left off,
another began, until it seemed as though they couldn't stop. They all
said it was a splendid joke, and that they really must go and tell it to
the whole bush. So they flew away, and far and near, for hours, the bush
echoed with chuckling and cackling, and wild bursts of laughter, as the
kookooburras told that grand joke everywhere.
"Now," said the Kookooburra, when all the others had gone, "a bit of snake
is just the right thing for breakfast. Will you have some, little Human?"
Dot shuddered at the idea of eating snake for breakfast, and the Kookooburra
thought she was afraid of being poisoned.
"It won't hurt you," he said, kindly, "I took care that it did not bite
itself. Sometimes they do that when they are dying, and then they're not
good to eat. But this snake is all right, and won't disagree like
cockchafers: the scales are quite soft and digestible," he added.
But Dot said she would rather wait for the berries the Kangaroo was
bringing, so the Kookooburra remarked that if she would excuse it he would
like to begin breakfast at once, as the fight had made him hungry. Then
Dot saw him hold the reptile on the branch with his foot, whilst he took
its tail into his beak, and proceeded to swallow it in a leisurely way.
In fact the Kookooburra was so slow that very little of the snake had
disappeared when the Kangaroo returned.
The Kangaroo had brought a pouch full of berries, and in her hand a small
spray of the magic ones, by eating which Dot was able to understand the
talk of all the bush creatures. All the time she was wandering in the
bush the Kangaroo gave her some of these to eat daily, and Dot soon found
that the effect of these strange berries only lasted until the next day.
The Kangaroo emptied out her pouch, and Dot found quite a large collection
of roots, buds, and berries, which she ate with good appetite.
The Kangaroo watched her eating with a look of quiet satisfaction.
"See," she said, "how easily one can live in the bush without hurting
anyone; and yet Humans live by murdering creatures and devouring them.
If they are lost in the scrub they die, because they know no other way to
live than that cruel one of destroying us all. Humans have become so
cruel that they kill, and kill, not even for food, but for the love of
murdering. I often wonder," she said, "why they and the dingos are
allowed to live on this beautiful kind earth. The black Humans kill and
devour us; but they, even, are not so terrible as the Whites, who delight
in taking our lives, and torturing us just as an amusement. Every creature
in the bush weeps that they should have come to take the beautiful bush
away from us."
Dot saw that the sad brown eyes of the Kangaroo were full of tears, and
she cried too, as she thought of all that the poor animals and birds
suffer at the hands of white men. "Dear Kangaroo," she said, "if I ever
get home, I'll tell everyone of how you unhappy creatures live in fear,
and suffer, and ask them not to kill you poor things any more."
But the Kangaroo sadly shook her head, and said, "White Humans are cruel,
and love to murder. We must all die. But about your lost way," she
continued in a brisk tone, by way of changing this painful subject; "I've
been asking about it, and no one has seen it anywhere. Of course someone
must know where it is, but the difficulty is to find the right one to ask."
Then she dropped her voice, and came a little, nearer to Dot, and stooping
down until her little black hands hung close to the ground, she whispered
in Dot's ear, "They say I ought to consult the Platypus."
"Could the Platypus help, do you think?" Dot asked.
"I NEVER think," said the Kangaroo, "but as the Platypus never goes
anywhere, never associates with any other creature, and is hardly ever
seen, I conclude it knows everything--it must, you know."
"Of course," said Dot, with some doubt in her tone.
"The only thing is," continued the Kangaroo, once more sitting up and
pensively scratching her nose. "The only thing is, I can't bear the
Platypus; the sight of it gives me the creeps: it's such a queer creature!"
"I've never seen a Platypus," said Dot, "do tell me what it is like!"
"I couldn't describe it," said the Kangaroo, with a shudder, "it seems
made up of parts of two or three different sorts of creatures. None of us
can account for it. It must have been an experiment, when all the rest of
us were made; or else it was made up of the odds and ends of the birds and
beasts that were left over after we were all finished."
Little Dot clapped her hands. "Oh, dear Kangaroo," she said, "do take me
to see the Platypus! there was nothing like that in my Noah's ark."
"I should say not!" remarked the Kangaroo. "The animals in the ark said
they were each to be of its kind, and every sort of bird and beast refused
to admit the Platypus, because it was of so many kinds; and at last Noah
turned it out to swim for itself, because there was such a row. That's
why the Platypus is so secluded. Ever since then no Platypus is friendly
with any other creature, and no animal or bird is more than just polite
to it. They couldn't be, you see, because of that trouble in the ark."
"But that was so long ago," said Dot, filled with compassion for the
lonely Platypus; "and, after all, this is not the same Platypus, nor are
all the bush creatures the same now as then."
"No," returned the Kangaroo, "and some say there was no ark, and no fuss
over the matter, but that, of course, doesn't make any difference, for
it's a very ancient quarrel, so it must be kept up. But if we are to go
to the Platypus we had better start now; it is a good time to see it--so
come along, little Dot," said the Kangaroo.
