The Australian Grasshopper

A DISTINGUISHED¹ Naturalist² was travelling in Australia, when he saw
a Kangaroo in session and flung a stone at it.  The Kangaroo
immediately adjourned⁴, 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 immediate³ reply, but later, as
in the shades of night they journeyed through the desolate⁵ vastness
of the Great Lone⁶ Land, he broke the silence:

  "I was thinking," he said, "of the uncommon⁷ magnitude of that
grass-hopper."