chly deserved our vengeance. Arise!'

'Bravely spoken,' said Bill, immediately recovering from despair.

'The grass is green, the day is fair,
The dandelions abound.
Is this a time for sad despair
And sitting on the ground?

'Our Puddin' in some darksome lair
In iron chains is bound,
While puddin'-snatchers on him fare,
And eat him by the pound.

'Let gloom give way to angry glare,
Let weak despair be drowned,
Let vengeance in its rage declare
Our Puddin' must be found.

'Then let's resolve to do and dare.
Let teeth with rage be ground.
Let voices to the heavens declare
Our Puddin' MUST be found.'

'Those gallant words have fired our blood,' said Sam, and they both
shook hands with Bunyip, to show that they were now prepared to follow
the call of vengeance.

'In order to investigate this dastardly outrage,' said Bunyip, 'we must
become detectives, and find a clue. We must find somebody who has seen a
singed possum. Once traced to their lair, mother-wit will suggest some
means of rescuing our Puddin'.'

They set off at once, and, after a brisk walk, came to a small house
with a signboard on it saying, 'Henderson Hedgehog, Horticulturist'.
Henderson himself was in the garden, horticulturing a cabbage, and they
asked him if he had chanced to see a singed possum that morning.

'What's that? What, what?' said Henderson Hedgehog, and when they had
repeated the question, he said, 'You must speak up, I'm a trifle deaf.'

'Have you seen a singed possum?' shouted Bill.

'I can't hear you,' said Henderson.

'Have you seen a SINGED POSSUM?' roared Bill.

'To be sure,' said Henderson, 'but the turnips are backward.'

'Turnips be stewed,' yelled Bill in such a tremendous voice that he blew
his own hat off. 'HAVE YOU SEEN A SINGED POSSUM?'

'Good season for wattle blossom,' said Henderson. 'Well, yes, but a very
poor season for carrots.'

'A man might as well talk to a carrot as try an' get sense out of this
runt of a feller,' said Bill, disgusted. 'Come an' see if we can't find
someone that it won't bust a man's vocal cords gettin' information out
of.'

They left Henderson to his horticulturing and walked on till they met a
Parrot who was a Swagman, or a Swagman who was a Parrot. He must have
been one or the other, if not both, for he had a bag and a swag, and a
beak, and a billy, and a thundering bad temper into the bargain, for the
moment Bill asked him if h