best of it.

At one time he ran for fourteen miles at one stretch, and, although he
hated swimming, on coming to a little stretch of sea, and being
pressed by the hunters, in went Keesa, and, notwithstanding a fresh
breeze, he got safely over, shook himself, and then fell into his long
leaps again as though nothing had happened.

Altogether he covered nearly twenty miles that day, and, as he still
seemed as fresh as ever and the land began to slope down, the hunters
gave up the chase.

Had they been going up hill they might have caught him, for in going
up hill dogs always gain on a kangaroo, and no one knew this better
than Keesa; therefore it was only to be expected that he should
deliberately lead the way to where the land was in his favor.

His leaps down hill were terrific, and the dogs, however much they
tried, could not overtake him; and so Keesa always gained the day, and
although he had many exciting hunts he was never caught.

Strong and healthy and hardy, he lived on, and lived up to his name of
_Boomer_, and is still living in New South Wales to this day, with a
gentle, brown-eyed wife and a little baby kangaroo, who peeps out of
his mother's pouch just as Keesa himself used to do when he was a
baby.