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There are many comic opportunities in the kangaroo particularly in the pouch. Let the showman see to it. The most entirely objectionable of all the marsupials is the Tasmanian devil. It is only a little devil, a couple of feet or so long, but its savagery is beyond measuring by anything like a two-foot rule.
The average size of the ordinary female kangaroo is about six feet, counting from the nose to the tip of the tail; and, marvellous though it may appear, the young kangaroo, at its birth, is but little over an inch in length, having a vague kind of shape, certainly, but otherwise soft, semi-transparent, and completely helpless. Now the pouch comes into use.
During a discussion, George told the following story, which, it will be noticed, has in some details, its parallel in a tragic incident in the history of England. No attempt is made to refine George's language: "This fella spear kill plenty. Kangaroo, wallaby, fish kill 'em all asame. He go ri' through longa kangaroo. One time me see 'em catch one fella boy.
Its peculiar configuration and want of solidity proved it indeed not to be gland; its motion, on touching it with the point of the finger, was so much that of an embryonic animal, that I at once, without further investigation, pronounced it a kangaroo.
"I think it's safe," she said, as she squatted down again. "Friend Kangaroo," said a Bronze-Wing that had sidled out to the end of a neighbouring branch, "you are so courageous, will you go first to the water, and let us know if it is all safe? We haven't tasted a drop of water for two days," she said, sadly, "and we're dying of thirst.
How curious it is, to give a subordinate though striking instance, that the hind feet of the kangaroo, which are so well fitted for bounding over the open plains those of the climbing, leaf-eating koala, equally well fitted for grasping the branches of trees those of the ground-dwelling, insect or root-eating, bandicoots and those of some other Australian marsupials should all be constructed on the same extraordinary type, namely with the bones of the second and third digits extremely slender and enveloped within the same skin, so that they appear like a single toe furnished with two claws.
We kept our eyes about us more vigilantly than ever. We saw also a few birds, but they kept at a distance from us. Of course, had we not been anxious to push on, we might have been able to get at them, and might possibly also have got up with the kangaroo we first saw.
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.
Then came the last bound before the great spring. Dot held her breath, and a feeling of sickness came over her. Her head seemed giddy, and she could not see, but she clasped her hands together and said, "God help my Kangaroo!" and then she felt the fearful leap with the rush through the air. Yes! they had reached the other side. No! they had not quite: what was the matter? What a struggle!
She longed to be with them to be kissed and cuddled, and her blue eyes filled with tears. "Your eyes just now remind me of two fringed violets, with the morning dew on them, or after a shower," said the Kangaroo. "Why are you crying?" "I was thinking," said Dot. "Oh! don't think!" pleaded the Kangaroo; "I never do myself." "I can't help it!" explained the little girl.
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