quiet; but as she peeped
out, she saw that the Kangaroo was making a very dangerous descent, and
she did not like to trouble her friend with questions just then. They
seemed to be going down to a great deep gully that looked almost like a
hole in the earth, the depth was so great, and the hills around came so
closely together. The way the Kangaroo was hopping was like going down
the side of a wall. Huge rocks were tumbled about here and there. Some
looked as if they would come rolling down upon them; and others appeared
as if a little jolt would send them crashing and tumbling into the
darkness below. Where the Kangaroo found room to land on its feet after
each bound puzzled Dot, for there seemed no foothold anywhere. It all
looked so dangerous to the little girl that she shut her eyes, so as not
to see the terrible places they bounded over, or rested on: she felt
sure that the Kangaroo must lose her balance, or hop just a little too
far or a little too near, and that they would fall together over the
side of that terrible wild cliff. At last she said:

"Oh, Kangaroo, shall we get safely to the bottom do you think?"

"I never think," said the Kangaroo, "but I know we shall. This is the
easiest way. If I went through the thick bush on the other side, I
should stand a chance of running my head against a tree at every leap,
unless I got a stiff neck with holding my head on one side looking out
of one eye all the time. My nose gets in the way when I look straight in
front," she explained. "Don't be afraid," she continued. "I know every
jump of the way. We kangaroos have gone this way ever since Australia
began to have kangaroos. Look here!" she said, pausing on a big boulder
that hung right over the gully, "we have made a history book for
ourselves out of these rocks; and so long as these rocks last, long,
long after the time when there will be no more kangaroos, and no more
humans, the sun, and the moon, and the stars will look down upon what
we have traced on these stones."

Dot peered out from her little refuge in the Kangaroo's pouch, and
saw the glow of the twilight sky reflected on the top of the boulder.
The rough surface of the stone shone with a beautiful polish like a
looking-glass, for the rock had been rubbed for thousands of years by
the soft feet and tails of millions of kangaroos; kangaroos that had
hopped down that way to get water. When Dot saw that, she didn't know
why it all seemed solemn, or why she fe