ng at the
ground, or disputing the possession of some unexpected dainty with a
tribe of long-legged fowls. Quaint enough they looked, these little,
fluffy balls, with their bright eyes, and tawny, spotted necks; frail
enough, too, and apt to come off badly at the spur or beak of any
truculent rooster who should resent their share of the plunder
aforesaid. Nominally they are under the care of a small Kafir boy, but
the little black rascal--his master being absent and his mistress soft
hearted--prefers the congenial associations of yonder group of beehive
huts away there behind the sheep kraals, and the fun of building
miniature kraals with mud and three or four boon companions, so the
ostrich chicks are left to herd themselves. But the volleying boom of
their male parent, down there in the great enclosure, rolls out loudly
enough on the evening air, and the huge bird may be described in all the
glory of his jet and snowy plumage, with inflated throat, rearing
himself to his full height, rolling his fiery eye in search of an
adversary.

And now the flaming rays of the sinking sun have given place to a
softer, mellower light, and the red afterglow is merging into the pearly
grey of evening. The hillside is streaked with the dappled hides of
cattle coming up the kloof, and many a responsive low greets the
clamourous voices of the calves, shut up in the calf _hoek_, hungry and
expectant. Then upon the ridge comes a white, moving mass of fleecy
backs. It streams down the slope, raising a cloud of dust--guided, kept
together, by an occasional kerrie deftly thrown to the right or left--
and soon arrives at its nightly fold. But the herd is nonplussed, for
there is no _Baas_ there to count in. He pauses a moment, looks around,
then drives the sheep into the kraal, and having secured the gate,
throws his red kaross around him and stalks away to the huts.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Eanswyth Carhayes stood on the _stoep_, looking out for the return of
her husband and cousin. She was very tall for a woman, her erect
carriage causing her to appear even taller. And she was very beautiful.
The face, with its straight, thoroughbred features, was one of those
which, at first sight, conveyed an impression of more than ordinary
attractiveness, and this impression further acquaintance never failed to
develop into a realisation of its rare loveliness. Yet by no means a
mere animal