But for escorting his daughter to the ball, Mr. Hassal would have
gone himself to the place and seen about it in person. As it was, he
placed the great trolly in the charge of four men, with instructions
to pick up a couple of men from distant huts to help in the task.
Krangi-Bahtoo--or Duck Water, as, less prettily, we should call
it--was the name given to the head of the creek, which had scooped
out the earth till it made itself a beautiful ravine just there,
with precipitous rocks and boulders that the kangaroos skipped across
and played hide-and-seek behind with hunters, and great towering
blue gums and red gums, that seemed to lose themselves in the blue,
blue sky-canopy above.
Tettawonga told of a Bunyip that dwelt where the trickling water
had made a pool, deep and beautiful, and delicate ferns had crept
tenderly to fringe its edge, and blackwood, and ti-trees grown up
thick and strong for a girdle. The water-hen made a home there,
the black swan built among the grass-like reeds, the wild duck
made frequent dark zigzag lines against the sky. From the trees
the bell-bird, the coach-whip, the tewinga, the laughing-jackass,
the rifle-bird and regent, filled the air with sound, if not with
music.
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