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about it tomorrow, because I'm going to wash.'

So they were left in the middle of Australia, Old Man Kangaroo
and Yellow-Dog Dingo, and each said, 'That's your fault.'


THIS is the mouth-filling song
Of the race that was run by a Boomer,
Run in a single burst--only event of its kind--
Started by big God Nqong from Warrigaborrigarooma,
Old Man Kangaroo first: Yellow-Dog Dingo behind.

Kangaroo bounded away,
His back-legs working like pistons--
Bounded from morning till dark,
Twenty-five feet to a bound.
Yellow-Dog Dingo lay
Like a yellow cloud in the distance--
Much too busy to bark.
My! but they covered the ground!

Nobody knows where they went,
Or followed the track that they flew in,
For that Continent
Hadn't been given a name.
They ran thirty degrees,
From Torres Straits to the Leeuwin
(Look at the Atlas, please),
And they ran back as they came.

S'posing you could trot
From Adelaide to the Pacific,
For an afternoon's run
Half what these gentlemen did
You would feel rather hot,
But your legs would develop terrific--
Yes, my importunate son,
You'd be a Marvellous Kid!




THE BEGINNING OF THE ARMADILLOS

THIS, O Best Beloved, is another story of the High and
Far-Off Times. In the very middle of those times was a Stickly-
Prickly Hedgehog, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon,
eating shelly snails and things. And he had a friend, a Slow-
Solid Tortoise, who lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon,
eating green lettuces and things. And so that was all right,
Best Beloved. Do you see?

But also, and at the same time, in those High and Far-Off Times,
there was a Painted Jaguar, and he lived on the banks of the
turbid Amazon too; and he ate everything that he could catch.
When he could not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and
beetles; and when he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to
his Mother Jaguar, and she told him how to eat hedgehogs and
tortoises.

She said to him ever so many times, graciously waving her tail,
'My son, when you find a Hedgehog you must drop him into the
water and then he will uncoil, and when you catch a Tortoise you
must scoop him out of his shell with your paw.' And so that was
all right, Best Beloved.

One beautiful night on the banks of the turbid Amazon, Painted
Jaguar found Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise
sitting under the trunk of a fallen tree. They could not run
away, and so Stickly-Prickly curled himself up into a ball,
because he was a Hedgehog, and Slow-Solid Tortoise drew in his
head and feet into his shell as far as they would go, because he
was a Tortoise; and so that was all right, Best Beloved. Do you
see?

'Now attend to me,' said Painted Jaguar, 'because this is very
important. My mother said that when I meet a Hedgehog I am to
drop him into the water and then he will uncoil, and when I meet

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