vages, nor yet to be as blunt and gruff as two
bears. I'm not going to forget that the dear old governor at home is a
gentleman, even if his sons do rough it out here."

"Till they're regular ruffians, Joe.--I say: see the nest?"

"Oh no; it's a mile away yet."

"Then there isn't one. You couldn't have seen it at all that distance."

"I never said I could see the nest, did I? It was enough for me that
I've seen the birds about, and that I caught sight of that one making
off this morning. We call them stupid, and they are in some things; but
they're precious cunning in others."

"But if they were only feeding?"

"Why, then, there's no nest. But I say breeding, and not feeding; and
that's rhyme if you take it in time, as the old woman said."

"But you talked about hen birds. Then there may be more than one nest?"

"Not here. Why, you know how a lot of them lay in the same nest."

"At home, shut up in pens, but not on the veldt."

"Why, of course they do, and 'tis their nature to, like the bears and
lions in Dr Watts. You don't know everything quite yet, old chap. If
you took the glass, and came and lay out here for two or three days and
nights, and always supposing the birds didn't see you--because if they
did they'd be deserting the nest and go somewhere else--you'd see first
one hen come to lay and then another, perhaps six of them; and when
they'd packed the nest as full as it would hold, with the sand banked up
round the eggs to keep them tight in their places with the points
downwards, so as to be close, you'd see hen after hen come and take her
turn, sitting all day, while the cock bird comes at nights and takes his
turn, because he's bigger and stronger, and better able to pitch into
the prowling jackals."

"How did you know all this, Joe?"

"Partly observation, partly from what I've heard Jack say," replied
Emson modestly. "Everything comes in useful. I daresay you won't
repent saving up all those odds and ends of stones and shells and eggs
you've got at home."

"Why, I often thought you'd feel they were a nuisance, Joe. I did see
you laugh at them more than once."

"Smile, old man, smile--that's all. I like it. You might grow a
regular museum out of small beginnings like that."

"Then we ought to have stuffed the goblin," cried Dyke merrily.

"Oh, come, no; that wouldn't do. Our tin house isn't the British
Museum; but I would go on collecting bits of ore and things. You may
find