to unload the waggon. With
the able assistance of Brook and his men, and the feeble aid of the
"Tottie," or Hottentot leader of the "span" of oxen, the boxes, ploughs,
barrels, bags, cases, etcetera, which constituted the worldly wealth of
the settlers, were soon placed on the green sward. Then the Dutchman
said "goeden-dag," or farewell, shook hands all round, cracked his long
whip, and went off into the unknown wilderness, leaving the Brook family
to its reflections.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE "LOCATION."

In the midst of the confused heap of their property, Edwin Brook sat
down on a large chest beside his wife and daughter, and gazed for some
time in silence on his new estate and home.

To say truth, it was in many respects a pleasant prospect. A bright
blue sky overhead, a verdant earth around. Grassy hills and undulations
of rich pasture-land swept away from their feet like a green sea, until
stopped in the far distance by the great blue sea itself. These were
dotted everywhere with copses of the yellow-flowered mimosa-bush,
through openings in which the glitter of a stream could be seen, while
to the left and behind lay the dark masses of a dense jungle filled with
arboreous and succulent plants, acacias and evergreens, wild-looking
aloes, tall euphorbias, quaint cactuses, and a great variety of
flowering shrubs--filled also, as was very soon discovered, with
antelopes, snakes, jackals, hyenas, leopards, and other wild creatures.
The only familiar objects which broke the wild beauty of the scene were
the distant white specks which they knew to be the tents just put up by
those settlers who chanced to be their "next neighbours."

"May God protect and bless us in our new home!" said Edwin Brook,
breaking the silence, and reverently taking off his cap.

A heartfelt "Amen" was murmured by Mrs Brook and Gertie, but a strange,
though not unpleasant, feeling of loneliness had crept over their
spirits, inducing them to relapse into silence, for they could not avoid
realising strongly that at last they were fairly left alone to fight the
great battle of life. Edwin Brook in particular, on seeing the long
team of the Dutch driver disappear over a distant ridge, was for the
first time deeply impressed with, as it were, the forsaken condition of
himself and his family. It was plain that he must take root there and
grow--or die. There was no neighbouring town or village from which help
could be obtained in any cas