because of the great tall trees that seemed to her to be trying to reach
heaven with their far-off crooked branches. She could see little patches
of blue sky between the tangled tufts of her way in the and was very
drooping leaves, and, as the dazzling sunlight had faded, she began to
think it was getting late, and that very soon it would be night.

The thought of being lost and alone in the wild bush at night, took her
breath away with fear, and made her tired little legs tremble under her.
She gave up all hope of finding her home, and sat down at the foot of the
biggest blackbutt tree, with her face buried in her hands and knees, and
thought of all that had happened, and what might happen yet.

It seemed such a long, long time since her mother had told her that she
might gather some bush flowers while she cooked the dinner, and Dot
recollected how she was bid not to go out of sight of the cottage. How she
wished now she had remembered this sooner! But whilst she was picking the
pretty flowers, a hare suddenly started at her feet and sprang away into
the bush, and she had run after it. When she found that she could not
catch the hare, she discovered that she could no longer see the cottage.
After wandering for a while she got frightened and ran, and ran, little
knowing that she was going further away from her home at every step.

Where she was sitting under the blackbutt tree, she was miles away from her
father's selection, and it would be very difficult for anyone to find her.
She felt that she was a long way off, and she began to think of what was
happening at home. She remembered how, not very long ago, a neighbour's
little boy had been lost, and how his mother had come to their cottage for
help to find him, and that her father had ridden off on the big bay horse
to bring men from all the selections around to help in the search. She
remembered their coming back in the darkness; numbers of strange men she