Australian fairy tales by Atha Westbury - HTML preview

CHAPTER II.
BROWN EYES.

Our friend Cocky was not given very much time to digest his breakfast. Dismounting from his steed the giant beckoned him forward, and thus addressed him: “You lazy imp! It would suit you very well to do nothing but eat my victuals and take a sleep afterwards, but you shall work. Listen! On the other side of yon mountain there is a wide lagoon fringed with reeds and rushes. There lives the Australian wonder, a Bunyip. You must find him and ask of him three questions—the answers to which you must bring to me before sundown, otherwise your miserable life shall answer for it.”

“Oh, that’s quite easy,” replied Cocky, with a dash of his city assurance. “I thought you were going to set me something very difficult. What are the three questions?”

“Why the leaves on the trees grow edgeways to the sun?” said the giant. “Next: What is the reason there is no water in Phantom Hollow? And last but not least: Why figs do not grow on the tree by the hut? Now begone! and bring me the answers before sundown,” cried the Red Giant in a towering rage.

Our hero departed with a great show of bravado, but when he came near the lagoon his assumed swagger quickly evaporated. He had heard there was such a creature as a Bunyip, but he had never met anybody who had seen one. “Never despair,” however, was Cocky’s motto. He would try and find it, for the sake of Brown Eyes. He wandered about and searched in every likely place amongst the rushes, and waded in the water calling for the Bunyip. But there was no response to his call, and the sun began dipping westward.

Hereupon the magpie came upon the scene. “Hello, Jack! Looking for the Bunyip?” he cried.

“I can’t find him. I don’t believe there is such an animal,” cried Cocky.

“Oh yes, there is; but he’s neither animal nor fish, Jack—yet a mixture of both. All you have to do is to cut a reed like a whistle, slit it down the middle, then blow upon it twice.”

“ITS EYES WERE DREADFUL TO BEHOLD, AS IT CAME SLOWLY OUT OF THE WATER.”

Cocky obeyed the directions of the bird, and immediately there came forth from the middle of the lake a huge monster, with a head shaped like that of a calf, and a body as large and unwieldy as a young hippopotamus. Its eyes were dreadful to behold, as it came slowly out of the water and crouched abjectly at the feet of our hero.

“What want you with me?” it cried presently.

“Tell me why the leaves of the gum-trees grow edgeways to the sun,” said Cocky.

“Because it is the nature of the tree to grow its leaves edgewise, thou fool,” replied the monster.

“What is the reason there is no water in Phantom Hollow?”

The Bunyip chuckled. “Because the sun has dried it up,” he cried contemptuously. “What more?”

“Why do figs not grow upon the tree by the hut in King Red Gum’s dell?”

“Because King Red Gum is an ass, who cannot discern a wild pine from a fig-tree. Now depart, or I shall drag thee down into the depths of the lagoon.”

“Ask for a hair from his tail,” whispered the magpie quickly.

“Please give me a hair from your tail,” said Cocky; and ere the monster could grant or refuse the request our hero, by a sudden dexterous movement, had possessed himself of the coveted prize and was speeding away up the mountain-side like a deer, with the clever magpie flying low at his side.

“Now, Jack,” cried the bird, “we must not part again until we have accomplished the release of my lady-bird Brown Eyes. Hold fast to that hair of the Bunyip’s tail, for it will prove one of the most powerful weapons in the art of magic. It is a talisman to swear by, and none can resist it, as you will presently discover.”

Then the magpie added a short whisper into Cocky’s ear, and they descended into the dell, where the giant and Old Gruff stood awaiting our hero.

“Tiny mortal, hast thou done thy task? What are the answers?” roared Red Gum menacingly.

“By the hair of the Bunyip’s tail, I command thy obedience,” cried our hero sternly.

Red Gum let fall his huge waddy from his hand. With a loud cry he sank down at our hero’s feet cringingly at the potent words. “Thou art the master! I am thy slave!” he cried in a submissive tone. “What wilt thou, mortal?”

“I have conquered, by jingo! henceforth thou shalt be a dingo.”

Cocky had barely uttered the charm ere the huge bulk of the giant faded beneath his eyes and assumed the form of a wild bush dog. At the same moment the old man of the hut rushed to the assistance of his fallen chief; but our hero held the key, or rather the hair, of the position, and bade him stand.

“Dog shalt thou be for thy folly. I will change thee to a collie!” cried Cocky.

Immediately the fated words passed the youth’s lips the old fellow was transformed into a big sheep dog, who, seeing the dingo at hand, sprang upon him at once, and while a battle royal raged between the two our hero mounted Stra fonatsa, and galloped away in company with the magpie, much farther than I could tell you in this little story.

When it was near sundown they came to a great cave, situated on a very high hill, and the magpie without more ado led our hero downward by a series of stairs cut in the solid rock, through arches and corridors, onward to an open vista of glorious country, glowing and shimmering beneath a strange but powerful light, which revealed the most minute object within their vision.

In the distance appeared a fine mansion, with a high tower in the centre of it; and when they came to the gate, they found a regiment of dwarfs on guard, who as soon as they saw the hair from the Bunyip’s tail fell down on their faces before our hero and besought him to enter.

The magnificence displayed within the building was something to be remembered. Here were arches of polished marble, priceless statues, tables and couches of antique workmanship, with rich carpets woven in no mortal loom, and where everything was gleaming with velvet and thick silks and pure gold.

Wandering on in this wonderful place the magpie led Jack Cochrane to a small apartment overlooking a lovely prospect of forest scenery, dotted with lakes, glinting under the soft light. In one corner of this room was hung a golden cage containing a wee wren. This bird became very lively when it saw the magpie, and the latter was no less agitated on seeing the little wren.

“Give me the hair of the Bunyip,” cried the magpie in an altered tone that Cocky hardly recognised. However, he obeyed. In an instant the room was plunged in profound darkness, while at the same moment came a musical voice, who in a loud tone cried, “Come forth, Brown Eyes! come forth from thy thraldom! Night hath fled. Behold the day!”

Then more swift and sudden than a lightning flash Cocky, the city waif, who had but winked his eyes in the darkness, opened them upon broad daylight, with the sun streaming into a magnificent apartment and upon a beautiful young lady with wonderful brown eyes, and also upon a tall, handsome young man by her side.

“Am I dreaming?” said poor Cocky, rubbing his eyes and staring at his companions.

“Not a bit of it, Jack Cochrane,” said the handsome youth, smiling down upon Brown Eyes beside him. “I am your friend still, but a magpie no longer. The scene has changed, boy, thanks to your courage and steadfastness. The wren and the magpie are Sir Plum Dough and his affianced bride, Brown Eyes Wattle Blossom. This is our domain. It is called The Gloaming. Stay here with us and be our henchman.”

RING DOWN THE CURTAIN.