loss, for his additions to the larder in the way of fish were not
particularly large, nor so toothsome as they might have been.

The good old round-hand copy slip, "Familiarity breeds contempt," is
thoroughly exemplified in South Africa; and it is fortunate that this is
the case, or it would be hard work travelling across a country where
every stone may conceal a poisonous serpent, every clump of rocks hold
the lurking-place of a boa-constrictor, and every patch of grass its
prowling lion or fierce rhinoceros--where a walk along a river's bank
may invite a charge from the fierce hippopotamus, and no man can bathe
without running the risk of being pulled under water and devoured by
that loathsome saurian lizard the crocodile.

But familiarity breeds contempt, and after the first nervousness has
worn off people go about in South Africa in a calm matter-of-fact way,
without troubling themselves about their hidden enemies, otherwise than
by taking ordinary precautions, and keeping what a sailor would call a
sharp look out for squalls.

If this were not so life would be almost intolerable, and every one
would exist in a state of nervous trepidation as hard as that of the
classical gentleman who passed his time with a keen sword suspended over
his head by a single hair--no doubt of a kind such as would make an
admirable roach-line for a fisherman.

The members of Mr Rogers' hunting expedition thus passed their time
happily enough in the continuous round of excitement, taking the
pleasure and the pain turn and turn as they came; not grumbling at
thorns, or weariness, or mosquito bites; resting when they grew weary,
and putting up with hard couches, hunger, and thirst, as they came,
without a murmur. They looked out for danger in a sharp matter-of-fact
way, and by consequence rarely had a mishap; while Dinny, who was a
perfect slave to his fears, and never stirred without taking the most
wonderful precautions, generally managed to come in for the worst of the
misfortunes that affected the camp.

It was he who would manage to run his head in the dark amidst the
prickly euphorbias. If there was a cloud of vicious gnats, Dinny
generally got bitten. If there was a poisonous snake anywhere near the
camp, Dinny tried to put his foot upon it; and over and over again when
near the crocodile-haunted streams he sauntered regularly into the
ferocious creature's way.

The General and his boys saved him from several perils, over