The Happy Traveller by Mary Grant Bruce

Author:Mary Grant Bruce
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, Australia, juvenile
Publisher: Distributed Proofreaders Canada
Published: 1929-05-15T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER IX

HOW TWO TRAVELLERS MET

THE next day went by slowly. Bill went early to work, and when he was out of sight Teddy busied himself with what small tasks he could find—there was not much, since Bill held definite views about leaving a camp in proper order. He fished, again with success, and with no little pride cooked for his dinner a trout which he considered superior to any other trout that had ever sizzled in a frying-pan. Then, having washed up, he read, and dreamed, and read again; and still the sun was annoyingly high, which meant that he need not yet begin to listen for Bill’s return.

“I think I’ll go for a bit of a walk,” Teddy said to himself. “It won’t hurt my old foot, if I go very slow.”

He took his stick and limped up the bank of the creek. It was easy going, and the creek was always fascinating, since you never knew what you would see round each bend. Teddy had been early trained to move lightly in the bush, where luck comes only to the soft-footed; and luck presently repaid him by letting him see a platypus, which many a bushman goes years without seeing. A ripple spreading in a pool warned him first, and he crouched silently behind a bush. Then he caught sight of the duck-bill above the water, and the queer, shy thing crept out upon a mud-bank and lay there, the sun glinting on its beautiful seal-like fur. It stayed until a kookaburra perched overhead and broke into a shout of laughter, whereat the platypus immediately slid off into deep water, as if it believed that it was the subject of the joke. Teddy watched for awhile, but it did not reappear, so he moved on.

He saw a kingfisher next: it came skimming over a long reach of water, a darting glint of deep blue, and perched on the trunk of a tree that had fallen into the creek. Presently came another blue flash, and its mate joined it. They rested on the bough together for a few moments, near enough for Teddy to see every exquisite shade of colour in the trim bodies; and then were off, flying swift and low in the shadow of the bank. Teddy sighed with happiness. There was no doubt that luck was with him to-day.

He did not go far, for his foot was still tender—the exertions of the day before had not helped it. But there was no need to go far, for birds came all about him when he sat still; and once a red wallaby hopped out of a thicket and fed quite near him. Even when it saw him it did not seem afraid, but hopped quietly away until the scrub hid it. And there were the rarely-seen black cockatoos, and their white cousins with sulphur top-knots; flocks of red and green parrots, pink and grey galahs, and harshly-chattering wattle-birds. Two whip-birds called to each other incessantly, but he

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