Willy Wagtail was really saying, "Dot and her Kangaroo are coming this way. Whatever you do, don't shoot them with that gun."
Presently the young man, Jack, noticed the little bird. "What friendly little chaps those wagtails are," he said, "and see how tame and fearless this one is. Upon my word, he nearly flew in your face that time!"
Dot's father did not notice the remark, for he had stopped suddenly, and was peering into the bush whilst he quietly shifted his gun into position, ready to raise it and fire.
"By Jove!" he said, "I saw the head of a Kangaroo a moment ago behind that iron-bark. Fancy it's coming so near the house. Next time it shows, I'll get a shot at it."
Both men waited for the moment when the Kangaroo should be seen again.
The next instant the Kangaroo bounded out of the Bush into the open paddock. Swift as lightning up went the cruel gun, but, as it exploded with a terrible report, the man, Jack, struck it upwards, and the fatal bullet lodged in the branch of a tall gum tree.
"Great Scott!" exclaimed Jack, pointing at the Kangaroo.
"Dot!" cried her father, dropping his gun, and stumbling blindly forward with outstretched arms, towards his little girl, who had just tumbled out of the Kangaroo's pouch in her hurry to reach her father.
"Hoo! hoo! ho! ho! he! he! ha! ha! ha! ha!" laughed a Kookooburra on a tree, as he saw Dot clasped in her father's great strong arms, and the little face hidden in his big brown beard.
"Wife! wife!" shouted Dot's father, "Dot's come back! Dot's come back!"