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"These jam tarts I baked for Billie and Nannie Wagtail, the goat children," said Nurse Jane. "Will you take them with you when you go out for a walk, Uncle Wiggily, and leave them at the goat house?" "I most certainly will," said the rabbit gentleman, very politely. "Is there anything else I can do for you, Nurse Jane?"
I know where you live," gabbled off the Wagtail. "It's the second big paddock from here, if you follow the belt of the sheoak trees over there. It's a house just like those things in Gabblebabble township. There's a yellow sheep dog, who's very good tempered, and a black one that made a snap at my tail the other day.
I went up softly to the spot, when out sprang the old bird I had seen, but only to drop to the ground just as the wagtail had done, to beat the turf with its wings, then to lie gasping for breath, then to flutter on a little further, until at last it rose up and flew to a bush.
She was afraid she must be very stupid, for she hadn't understood anything except that Willy Wagtail could help them to find her way. "That is the beauty of it all," said the Kangaroo. "The Platypus is so learned and so instructive, that no one tries to understand it; it is not expected that anyone should." "Now we must find Willy Wagtail," said the Kangaroo.
There is a party to-night, I suppose, and that is the expression of their enjoyment. I believe," she continued, with a suppressed yawn, "it's not so painful as it sounds. Willy Wagtail, who goes a great deal amongst Humans, says they do that sort of thing also; he has often heard them when he lived near the town."
Wagtail," he exclaimed, "the cabin is full of water we are sinking! Ah! it is deuced hard to be drowned in this puddle, like potatoes in a tub." "Captain, captain," cried Bangs, looking over the side of his bed, "did you ever see the like of that? There, just under your light look at it; why it's a bird's nest, with a thrush in it, swimming about."
The Grey Wagtail is by no means common in the Islands, though it may occasionally remain to breed, as I have seen it both in Guernsey and Sark between the 21st of June and the end of July in 1866, but I have not seen it in any of the Islands during the autumn.
After many farewells, and much hopping back to give Dot warnings and make promises of returning soon, the Kangaroo went in search of Willy Wagtail; and the little girl was left all alone. Dot looked for a nice shady nook, in which to lie down and rest; and she found the place so cheerful and pretty, that she was not afraid of being alone. She was in the hollow of an old watercourse.
Then my father called off Wagtail; and the poor creature sunk down in the bottom of the trench amongst the young firs without a sound, and there lay. My father went up to her; but she only stared at him with big blank black eyes, and yet such a lost look on her young, handsome, yet gaunt face, as almost convinced him she was the mother of the child.
The river itself was embellished with masses of water-flowers; and water-birds, the smallest scarcely larger than a wagtail, the largest somewhat exceeding the size of a swan, of a different form and dark grey plumage, but hardly less graceful, seemed to be aware of the stringent protection they enjoyed from the law. They came up to our boat and fed out of Eveena's hand with perfect fearlessness.
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