The Animals Noah Forgot

Name: The Animals Noah Forgot
Author: Andrew Barton Paterson

The Animals Noah Forgot is a collection of Australian bush verses framed by a prose sketch in which an escaped English swan, adrift on an Australian waterhole, meets a "placid round-eyed elderly gentleman" native bear perched in a gumtree. The swan, boasting of his family's ancient lineage (arriving in England with Richard Coeur-de-Leon), asks the bear where he is. The bear explains that his own people are older still: when Noah's Flood came, the native bears refused to board the Ark, distrusting the "not too reliable" Noah, and instead climbed trees and lived on gum leaves until the waters fell. The bear dismisses the tree-dwelling possums as false relations ("undignified," hanging by their tails) and explains the platypus family, equally ancient, avoided the Ark by taking to the water and living easily on drifting logs. The bear refuses to travel anywhere, citing a relative who wandered off and was stung by bees. When the swan calls for help, no one answers; the bear summons a platypus from the waterhole and asks him to guide the swan to food and bring him back so the three can "make a night of it," swapping stories. The narrator states the book itself derives from what the bear and platypus told that night. What follows is a sequence of independent verses on Australian bush creatures and characters, not a continuous narrative: - Chorus frogs sing competing songs of croaking, coke, and work, ending in a moral about "chorus frogs" ruling the world. - Weary Will the Wombat digs endlessly, foiling a boundary rider's fence until a swinging gate is built for him. - Bristling Billy the porcupine (echidna) and Weary Will hold a digging contest that Billy abandons to eat ants, angering a kangaroo who lost his bet. - Old Man Platypus is described living secretively with his family under a riverbank. - Squirrels (sugar gliders) play by night near an old bridle track, described gliding and eating moths, honey, and fruit. - Emus and kangaroos play a football match with a whistler duck as referee, who flees after the rough game. - Benjamin Bandicoot ("Skinny-go-root") digs for food at night and investigates lights. - Ironbark the turtle and Dan-di-dan the water rat dispute a dying crawfish's remains; Baggy-beak the Pelican, asked to arbitrate, eats the fish himself and postpones judgment. - The Boastful Crow claims superior flying skill until challenged by migrating Bee-birds heading to Japan, and declines to join them, explaining why jackasses (kookaburras) laugh at crows. - A woodpecker-postman delivers a misaddressed letter meant for the boo-book owl, who resembles a broken branch. - A town dog on a west-country station is kicked by an emu he tries to hunt, taught that emus "kick like a kangaroo" and only the front is dangerous. - The Honorable Ardleigh Wyse, a dry-fly fisherman, is sent to Queensland and told locals catch barramundi by clubbing them or stupefying them with leaves; he ends up working his passage home on a steamship. - A "new chum" with a small rifle fails to kill a giant boar, escapes up a tree, and is later found still preferring mutton to pork. - White cockatoos scout and raid a cornfield, mocking the boss's son who hunts them, observed by Old Black Harry. - A description of buffalo in tropical swamps and lagoons, followed by verses on Black Harry's bullock team hauling a dray through mountain fords, blazing tracks later used by tourist cars. - Reminiscence of Carmody's shearing shed, where a trained billy-goat named Fragrant Fred led sheep to be shorn. - Morgan the drover praises a small red sheepdog for her skill managing weak sheep on rocky ground. - "A Dog's Mistake": a stray mongrel, fed and indulged, grows aggressive, bites the butcher, and is expelled after burying a beef bone in the garden. - Drovers take an unruly mob of a thousand goats overland, gathering strays and getting jailed for the excess goats. - Soldier verses: a soldier complains of symptoms to a sergeant who dryly diagnoses "lead" (malingering), then is sent to the front; another verse praises the unsung Army Mule drivers of the war. - An old man predicts rain by watching parrakeets, but drought persists regardless of their flight direction. - "Noisy Ned," a silent shearer, is provoked by a porcupine placed in his bed by a fellow shearer, and reveals himself as a former champion boxer who knocks out the shed's bully, Big Barcoo. - A dingo pup boasts to his mother of hunting a wild duck's nest, but flees in fright when a duck egg bursts, thinking he's been shot.

By Andrew Barton Paterson · First published 1933 · Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Children's Literature · 24 chapters · 7,262 words

First lines

The Mountains

A land of sombre, silent hills, where mountain cattle go By twisted

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The Animals Noah Forgot is listed on Textopian as a novel by Andrew Barton Paterson, dated 1933 CE.

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Work type: Novel
Author: Andrew Barton Paterson
Date: 1933 CE
Language: English
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Children's Literature, Folklore
Length: 7,262 words
Structure: 24 chapters, 874 paragraphs
Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)

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Genres

Fantasy — The Animals Noah Forgot is a fantasy novel that follows the story of a young boy who discovers a magical world of forgotten animals. The novel features fantastical creatures and magical elements, making it a fantasy novel.
Adventure — The Animals Noah Forgot is an adventure novel that follows the story of a young boy who embarks on a journey to discover a magical world of forgotten animals. The novel features exciting and thrilling adventures, making it an adventure novel.
Children's Literature — The Animals Noah Forgot is a children's literature novel that follows the story of a young boy who discovers a magical world of forgotten animals. The novel is written in a style that is suitable for children, making it a children's literature novel.
Folklore — The Animals Noah Forgot is a folklore novel that follows the story of a young boy who discovers a magical world of forgotten animals. The novel features elements of folklore, making it a folklore novel.