e said, "whether we shoot one or no, we'll have a canter
after them. Let's keep down in that hollow, and round the little hill
there, so as to approach unseen. Look out for ant-bear holes. And now,
one--two--three--forward!"

A touch from the heel made the beautiful animals they rode bound away,
but with a cry of pain Dick reined in.

"My dear boy, what's the matter?" said Mr Rogers, pulling up, while
Jack returned with a blank look of dismay upon his face.

"Thorns!" cried Dick viciously, as he gave a writhe in his saddle.

"Stop and pick 'em out with a pin," cried Jack. "Come along, father.
Haw! haw! haw! I thought he was hurt!" Then sticking his knees into
his nag's side, he bounded off.

"Poor old fellow!" cried Mr Rogers, laughing. "You'll soon forget
them." And he too galloped off, to try and circumvent the herd.

"Go on! ugly old Jack," shouted Dick, as he sat fast, checking his
horse, which wanted to follow. "You'll get a thorn or two in yourself
some day."

He might have shouted this through a speaking trumpet, and his brother
would not have heard, as, sitting well down in his saddle, he led the
way into the hollow, his father close behind, and both thoroughly
enjoying their gallop.

"I don't care!" cried Dick sulkily, as he sat and watched them. "Pick
out the thorns with a pin, indeed! See if I don't stick a pin in old
Jack when he's asleep to-night--and how will he like it?"

Dick gave another writhe as he watched the two riders out of sight, and
then muttering in an ill-used way, "Pick 'em out with a pin indeed!" he
half turned in his seat, lolling in his saddle, and patting and playing
with his horse, when lazily turning his eyes round amongst the clumps of
trees, he saw something moving amongst the leaves.

"Boa-constrictors!" he cried in his astonishment. "Monsters! Ugh! No,
they're those great long-necked giraffes. They looked just like huge
snakes raising themselves amongst the trees."

Dick forgot all about the thorns as he nipped his nag's sides with his
knees, turned its head, and went off at a canter for the place where the
giraffes, seven or eight in number, were browsing upon the lower
branches of the trees, their long necks seeming to writhe in and out
amongst the branches in a way that quite justified Dick's idea of their
being serpents, for their bodies were invisible among the undergrowth.

For a few minutes the great animals did not see the approach of the
young h