time the party assembled at the railway station in Cape
Town, and when the train was ready, our friends, accompanied by their
host, Mr. Shaffner, took their places and were soon whirling away
towards their destination. For a part of the way the train wound among
hills and low mountains, and for another it stretched away across the
level or slightly undulating plain. Mr. Shaffner entered at once upon
the subject of ostriches, and as he began his conversation, Harry asked
him if he had any objections to their taking notes of what he said.

"Not in the least," was the reply; "you are welcome to take all the
notes you like, and if there is any point that I don't explain fully to
your satisfaction, please tell me, and I will be more explicit."

The youths thanked him for his courtesy, and immediately brought out
their notebooks and pencils.

"According to tradition," said Mr. Shaffner, "ostriches were formerly
very abundant, wild ones, I mean, all over this part of the country. In
the early part of this century they were so numerous in the neighborhood
of Cape Town, that a man could hardly walk a quarter of an hour without
seeing one or more of these birds. As late as 1858, a flock of twenty or
thirty were seen among hills about twenty miles from Cape Town, but
after that time they seemed to have disappeared almost entirely. Ostrich
farming is an enterprise of the past twenty years, and before it began,
the only way of procuring ostrich feathers was by hunting down and
killing the wild birds. The practise was cruel, and it was also the
reverse of economical. Thoughtful hunters realized this, and a rumor
went through the colony that ostriches had been domesticated in Algeria,
and were successfully raised for the production of feathers. When this
rumor or report went about, it naturally set some of us thinking, and
our thoughts were, 'Why can't ostriches be raised here, as well as in
Algeria?' Several enterprising men proceeded to make experiments. They
offered to pay a high price for live birds in good health and condition,
and the price they offered induced the natives to set about catching
them.

"Of course we were all in the dark as to the proper method of taking
care of ostriches, as the business was entirely new to all of us. We
made many mistakes and lost a good many birds. The eggs became addled
and worthless, and for the first two or three years it looked as though
the experiments would be a failure. Our greatest d