They were so tender and green that
they could only grow far away from the sun, and as she peeped into the
hollows and caves where they grew, it seemed as if she was being shown the
secret store-house of Nature, where she kept all the most lovely plants,
out of sight of the world. A soft carpet seemed to spring under Dot's
feet, like a nice springy mattress, as she trotted along. She asked the
Kangaroo why the earth was so soft, and was told that it was not earth,
but the dead leaves of the tree-ferns above them, that had been falling
for such a long, long time, that no Kangaroo could remember the beginning.
Then Dot looked up, and saw that there was no sky to be seen, or tops of
trees; for they were passing under a forest of tree-ferns, and their
lovely spreading fronds made a perfect green tent over their heads. The
sunlight that came through was green, as if you were in a house made of
green glass. All up the slender stems of these tall tree-ferns were the
most beautiful little plants, and many stems were twined, from the earth
to their feather-like fronds, with tender creeping ferns--the fronds of
which were so fine and close, that it seemed as if the tree-fern were
wrapped up in a lovely little fern coat. Even crumbling dead trees, and
decaying tree-ferns, did not look dead, because some beautiful moss, or
lichen, or little ferns had clung to them, and made them more beautiful
than when alive.
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