ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE 183 



There are no more accusations of dishonourable motives 

 on the part of the hens in doing away with the porcelain 

 patterns to escape the arduous duty of laying. It was all 

 the fault of the serpent. Now the serpent is not wise, for 

 any nest egg beguiles him. It takes a long while to digest 

 such hardware. Traps are now laid for him. An egg of 

 china is put in a box, the open part of which is covered 

 with small mesh-wire netting. The snake submits to the 

 temptation of the egg coyly resting on a bunch of grass, 

 and having made it its own, cannot let go. Then comes 

 abhorred fate in the shape of a gleeful man with a 

 long-handled shovel, and the end of the snake is piece s. 



ADVENTURE WITH A CROCODILE 



" Cooling of the air with sighs, 

 In an odd angle of the Isle." 



Now to proceed with the deliberate intention of dragging 

 by the ears into these pages a crocodile yarn. We have 

 not a single " alligator " in Australia, our crocodiles being 

 wrongly so called, but this perversity of nomenclature does 

 not affect the anecdote. 



To tell of the coast of Queensland, and to omit reference 

 to an adventure with one of those wary beasts would be 

 to court criticism likely to cast a shadow upon the 

 veracity of more than one of the incidents and occurrences 

 herein to be chronicled. 



I approach the duty to the readers as well as to myself 

 with diffidence, for has it not been stated that these pages 

 were fated to be unsensational and unromantic, and can 

 any one imagine an unsensational adventure with a 

 crocodile ? Therein lie the virtue of and the apology for 

 this story. 



If the reader will take the trouble to scan the revised 

 chart of the island, he will notice on the eastern coast an 

 indentation entitled " Panjoo," which, in the language of 

 the blacks, seems to indicate " nice place." A steep grassy 



