Yet all the time, she could not get away from the sense of living in some fantastic dream--an Edward Lear nonsense dream.

The sight of the kangaroos in the Bush brought a particular rhyme of her childhood to her mind.

She half said, half sang it to an improvised tune: 'Said the Duck to the Kangaroo, "Good gracious! how you hop! Over the fields and water too, As if you never would stop!"' She caught her husband looking at her in a fascinated, puzzled way, and paused and gave him her funny little smile.
'That's a very pretty song,' he said.

'But I can't make out what it means.

What is it about a duck or a kangaroo?
They're nonsense words, aren't they ?' 'Nonsense--oh yes, frightful nonsense.