was the
identical steed his father had ridden when attacked, as I have
described, by Master.

Johnny himself was once assaulted, trampled on, and severely cut about
the head, by one of these same ostriches, and might have been killed if
his father had not chanced to be at hand. Johnny was younger at the
time, and, in the foolish ardour of youth, attempted to rise when
knocked down. This gave the ostrich the opportunity of once and again
repeating his blows. If the lad had lain still he would have suffered
less. I might draw a beautiful moral on submission and humility out of
this, but won't.

Strange to say, the male ostrich loses nearly all his courage when out
of his own proper paddock or domain. This was illustrated to me one
morning in the case of Gouws. We were walking by the side of his
enclosure, and he was advancing to meet us in his own warlike style,
when we observed that the gate was open. Before we could get near to
close it Gouws marched through. If we had entered his grounds an attack
would have been highly probable, but no sooner did he find himself
outside the accustomed wall than the spirit in him changed. He looked
confusedly round at the unfamiliar objects, then dropped his defiant
tail, and fled.

It cost us the better part of a forenoon, with temperature at 105
degrees in the shade, before we succeeded in driving that bird back into
his own paddock, and all that time he was running away from us,
overwhelmed, apparently, with fear!

LETTER FIVE.

MORE ABOUT OSTRICHES--KARROO GARDENS--A RIDE WITH BONNY--SKETCHING UNDER
DIFFICULTIES--ANECDOTES AND INCIDENTS.

Ah, those were happy days, when, with a congenial spirit, I drove and
galloped over the South African plains. There was not much in the way
of thrilling incidents, to be sure, and nothing whatever of wild
adventure, but there was novelty in everything, and possibilities enough
to keep the spirit ever on the alert.

We used to ride out sometimes after steenboks,--small brown creatures,
that made little show when bagged, but then there were huge and horrid
vultures to remind one of the sandy desert, and there were pauws--
gigantic birds that were splendid eating; and the very thought that I
trod on land which little more than quarter of a century back had been
marked by the print of the royal lion was in itself sufficient to arouse
unwonted interest, which was increased by the knowledge of the fact that
the kloofs or glens a