t to
Jordan the constellation of the Southern Cross as a sight which their
friends in the North-land could never see unless they crossed the
equator.

Jordan looked at the stars some time in silence, and then said: "Them
stars is been shinin' thar allus, and yit, Jim, they wuz outer sight o'
us. To see 'em we had ter cross ther line. Who can tell, Jim, what new
stars'll shine on us when thet other line, thet men call death, shall be
crossed, and our eyes shall be given ther new light beyond?"

He paused a moment, and then went on: "I'z been prospered. When I war a
boy I went to ther wah. I war in many a fight. Men as loved life mightily
wuz killed all 'round me; many another brave feller tuk sick and died.
Not a scratch cum ter me.

"I made er stake easy-like in ther mines. I've dun well 'nuff; and yit,
Jim, if thar should cum ther summons ter-night, and I knowd I'd got ter
go, I wouldn't hev a sorrer 'cept thet we haven't passed on ther mine
yit."

Then Sedgwick realized that in the selfishness of his own loneliness at
leaving his bride, he had forgotten his friend, and that he had all the
time been concealing a deeper grief and trying to cheer him.

"Dear old Tom," he said humbly. "I have been absorbed and selfish since
we left England. I did not realize my own selfishness. We have found new
stars in the sky. Let us trust that no sorrows will come to us that will
not be cheered by stars behind them, and let us nurse the hope that this
journey is but a discord in our lives that will make the music of them
sweeter when it shall be passed."

"Shore enuff," was Jordan's answer. "I war once down at the bottom of
ther Colorado Canon. It war terrible. I never seen a place so desolate
and wild; but, Jim, I looked up along the walls hundreds of feet
overhead, and thar in ther daylight, away off in ther infinite sky,
some stars war shinin'."

So there, in the starlight, on that lonely table-land in South Africa,
the two true men clasped hands in silence, and their hearts drew nearer
to each other than they had ever been drawn before.

The second day, the road in places skirted a forest in which the yellow
tree and the great beech were the most prominent trees, creepers grew
around them, and vines trailed over their branches; marvelously tinted
flowers mingled with them, and the scene was enchanting.

More than once a band of antelope was seen scudding away in the distance;
here and there a zebra fled from before them