t, "only these curls," and she touched her
little head.

"Then you ought to be black," argued the Koala. "You're not the right
colour. Only Blacks have no fur, but what they steal from the proper
owners. Do you steal fur?" it asked in an anxious voice.

"How do they steal fur?" asked Dot.

The Koala looked very miserable, and spoke with horror. "They kill us
with spears, and tear off our skins and wear them because their own
skins are no good."

"That's not stealing," said Dot; "that's killing"; and, although it
seemed very difficult to make the little Bear understand, she explained,
"Stealing is taking away another person's things; and when a person is
dead he hasn't anything belonging to him, so it's not stealing to take
what belonged to him before, because it isn't his any longer--that is,
if it doesn't belong to anyone else."

"You make my head feel empty," complained the Koala. "I'm sure you're
all wrong; for an animal's skin and fur is his own, and it's his life's
business to keep it whole. Everyone in the bush is trying to keep his
skin whole, all day long, and all night too. Good gracious! what is the
matter up there?"

A terrible hullabaloo between a pair of Opossums up a neighbouring gum
tree arrested the attention of both Dot and the Koala. Presently the
sounds of snarling, spitting, and screaming ended, and an Opossum
climbed out to the far end of a branch, where the moonlight shone on his
grey fur like silver. There he remained snapping and barking
disagreeable things to his mate, who climbed up to the topmost branch,
and snarled and growled back equally unpleasant remarks.

"Why don't you bring in gum leaves for to-morrow, instead of sleeping
all day and half the night too?" shouted the Opossum on the branch to
his wife. "You know I get hungry before daylight is over and hate going
out in the light."

"Get them yourself, you lazy loon!" retorted the lady Opossum. "If you
disturb my dreams again this way, I'll make your fur fly."

"Take care!" barked back her husband, "or I'll bring you off that branch
pretty quickly."

"You'd better try!" sneered his wife. "Remember how I landed you into
the billabong the other night!"

The taunt was too much for the Opossum on the branch; he scuttled up the
tree to reach his mate, who sprang forward from her perch into the air.
Dot saw her spring with her legs all spread out, so that the skinny
flaps were like furry wings. By this means she was able to break