Presently the big Blue-gum groaned loudly.

"Oo! Ah! Ah! Golly!" groaned the Blue-gum in a strange voice.

"I beg your pardon? said the Little Red House.

"Oh, I have a nasty sharp pain in my side," said the Blue-gum. "I do
hope and trust it isn't white-ants. It would be simply horrible, if
it were. Fancy getting white-ants at my time of life! Here I have
lived on this mountain, tree and sapling, for over a hundred years;
and to think those nasty, white, flabby little things should get me
at last is horrible--horrible!"

"I am sorry," said the Little Red House. "I'm afraid I've been very
selfish, too. I was forgetting that everyone has troubles of his own;
but I hope it isn't so bad as you fear."

"It is bad enough," groaned the Blue-gum. "Ow! There it is again. I'm
afraid it IS white-ants. I can feel the wretched little things nipping."

But the Little Red House hardly heard him. He was thinking again of
his own troubles.

So they stood all through that day, saying very little to each other.
Rabbits came and played about the Little Red House, and lizards ran
over his door-step, and once a big wallaby went flopping right past
the front gate. But the Little Red House paid no attention. He was
too busy thinking of his loneliness.

Birds came and perched in the branches of the big Blue-gum, and