The Australian Grasshopper


  A DISTINGUISHED Naturalist was travelling in Australia, when he saw 
a Kangaroo in session and flung a stone at it.  The Kangaroo 
immediately adjourned, tracing against the sunset sky a parabolic 
curve spanning seven provinces, and evanished below the horizon.  
The Distinguished Naturalist looked interested, but said nothing 
for an hour; then he said to his native Guide:

  "You have pretty wide meadows here, I suppose?"

  "No, not very wide," the Guide answered; "about the same as in 
England and America."

  After another long silence the Distinguished Naturalist said:

  "The hay which we shall purchase for our horses this evening - I 
shall expect to find the stalks about fifty feet long.  Am I 
right?"

  "Why, no," said the Guide; "a foot or two is about the usual length 
of our hay.  What can you be thinking of?"

  The Distinguished Naturalist made no immediate reply, but later, as 
in the shades of night they journeyed through the desolate vastness 
of the Great Lone Land, he broke the silence:

  "I was thinking," he said, "of the uncommon magnitude of that 
grass-hopper."