Just So Stories for Little Children / Просто сказки. Книга для чтения на английском языке

This is the picture of Old Man Kangaroo at five in the afternoon, when he had got his beautiful hind legs just as Big God Nqong had promised. You can see that it is five o’clock, because Big God Nqong’s pet time clock says so. That is Nqong, in his bath, sticking his feet out. Old Man Kangaroo is being rude to Yellow-Dog Dingo. Yellow-Dog Dingo has been trying to catch Kangaroo all across Australia. You can see the marks of Kangaroo's big new feet running ever so far back over the bare hills. Yellow-Dog Dingo is drawn black, because I am not allowed to paint these pictures with real colours out of my paint-box; and besides, Yellow-Dog Dingo got dreadfully black and dusty after running through the Flinders and the Cinders.

I don’t know the names of the flowers growing round Nqong’s bath. The two little squatty[145] things out in the desert are the other two gods that Old Man Kangaroo spoke to early in the morning. That thing with the letters on it is Old Man Kangaroo’s pouch. He had to have a pouch just as he had to have legs.

‘Yes,’ said Kangaroo. ‘I wish that I hadn’t[146]. I thought you would do it by charms and incantations, but this is a practical joke.’

‘Joke!’ said Nqong, from his bath in the blue gums. ‘Say that again and I’ll whistle up Dingo and run your hind legs off.’

‘No,’ said the Kangaroo. ‘I must apologize. Legs are legs, and you needn’t alter ‘em so far as I am concerned. I only meant to explain to Your Lordliness that I’ve had nothing to eat since morning, and I’m very empty[147] indeed.’

‘Yes,’ said Dingo – Yellow-Dog Dingo, – ‘I am just in the same situation. I’ve made him different from all other animals; but what may I have for my tea?’

Then said Nqong from his bath in the salt-pan, ‘Come and ask me 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.[148] ‘

This is the mouth-filling song
Of the race that was run[149]

by a Boomer,Run in the 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[150]

,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[151].
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[152]

you could trotFrom 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[153] son,
You’d be a Marvellous Kid!

Questions and tasks

1. Why did the Kangaroo go to the different Gods?

2. How did Nqong make the Kangaroo’s wish come true?

3. Did the Kangaroo thank Yellow-Dog Dingo? Why?