Page 25 - A Little Bush Maid

As the signal was given, the drivers urged on their steeds according to their
judgment, and with magnificent results.

First to get off the line were the wallabies and the kangaroo. They fled,

each his several way, and after them went their drivers, in great haste. The
kangaroo had all the best of the start. So remarkable was his bound that he
twitched his reins quite out of Norah’s hands, and made for the fence of the

paddock. Tt was an open one, which let him through easily. The wallabies,
seeing his shining success, followed his course, and midway managed to

entangle their reins, at which Wally and Harry were wildly hauling.
Confusion became disorder, and the wallabies at length reduced themselves
to a tangle, out of which they had to be assisted by means of Harry’s pocket

knife.

Jim had no luck. The parrot went off well, but very soon seemed to regret
his rashness and, despite all Jim’s endeavours, returned with solemnity to
the start, where he paused and talked fluently in the mixed language that

was all his own. Tn desperation Jim tried to pull him along, but Fudge
simply walked round and round him, until he had exhausted his driver’s

patience, and was "turned out."

The most spirited of the competitors were decidedly the cockatoo and Tim.

They were panting for each other’s blood from the start, and before they
had been urged over a quarter of the way they found an opportunity of

warfare, and seized it simultaneously. Then the air grew murky with
sound--cockatoo shrieks, mingled with cat calls and fluent Chinese, cutting
across Hogg’s good, broad Scots. Naturally, the strings of the harness

became fatally twisted immediately, and soon the combatants were bound
together with a firmness which not all the efforts of their drivers could

undo. A sudden movement of the pair made Lee Wing spring back hastily,
whereupon he tripped and stumbled violently against Hogg.

Hogg’s temper was at vanishing point, and this was the last straw.

"Ye pig-tailed image!" he exclaimed furiously. Drawing back, he aimed a
blow at Lee Wing, which would have effectively put that gentle Mongolian