in looking for
frogs on its way.

All that day the Kangaroo and Dot stayed near the cave, so that the poor
animal might get quite well again. The Kangaroo said she did not know
that part of the country, and so she had better get her legs again
before they faced fresh dangers. Neither of them was so bright and merry
as before. The weather was showery, and Dot kept thinking that perhaps
she would never get home, now she had been so long away, and she kept
remembering the time when the little boy was lost and everyone's
sadness.

The Kangaroo too seemed melancholy. "What makes you sad?" asked Dot.

"I am thinking of the last time before this that I was hunted. It was
then I lost my baby Kangaroo," she replied.

"Oh! you poor dear thing!" exclaimed Dot, "and have you been hunted
before last night?"

"Yes," said the Kangaroo with a little weary sigh. "It was just a few
days before I found you. White Humans did it that time."

"Tell me all about it," said Dot, "how did you escape?"

[Illustration: THE BITTERN HELPS DOT]

"I escaped then," said the Kangaroo, settling herself on her haunches to
tell the tale, "in a way I could have done last night. But I will die
sooner than do it again."

"Tell me," repeated Dot.

"There is not much to tell," said the Kangaroo. "My little Joey was
getting quite big, and we were very happy. It was a lovely Joey. It was
so strong, and could jump so well for its size. It had the blackest of
little noses and hands and tail you ever saw, and big soft ears which
heard more quickly than mine. All day long I taught it jumping, and we
played and were merry from sunrise to sunset. Until that day I had never
been sad, and I thought all the creatures must be wrong to say that in
this beautiful world there could be such cruel beings as they said White
Humans were. That day taught me I was wrong, and I know now that the
world is a sad place because Humans make it so; although it was made to
be a happy place. We were playing on the side of a plain that day, and
our game was hide-and-seek in the long grass. We were having great fun,
when suddenly little Joey said, 'Strange creatures are coming, big
ones.'

"I hopped up the stony rise that fringed the plain, and thought as I did
so I could hear a new sound on the breeze. Joey hid in the grass, but
I went boldly into the open on the hillside to see where the danger was.
I saw, far off, Humans on their big animals that go so quickly, and
directly