g vleck vark and a porcupine," replied Hans. "The porcupine I
found out on the plains, and speared him before he got to his hole. The
pig I saw run into a jackall's hole, so I waited quietly over it with my
assagy till it came out to peep where I had gone. I stabbed it in the
neck, and held it down till I killed it with my assagy. So we shall not
starve yet, Victor; and the girls can eat pork, if they object to
porcupine."

"Ah! Hans," said Victor, "though I am an old hunter, I know I should
starve in the desert where you would keep fat and sleek."

It was a strange breakfast, that which took place on the mountain-spur,
between the five white people on the morning in question. It is seldom
that lovers pass through such scenes as those in which were Hans and
Katrine. Artificial life is now so much more general than is natural
life, that few people are aware how very false is much that surrounds
them. A well-bred English lady would probably imagine that she would
rather starve than make a meal off a porcupine, when no plate or fork
enabled her to eat, as some would term it, "like a Christian." It is
surprising, however, how soon we learn to dispense with these ornaments
of the feast, as we may term them. The writer of this tale cannot
recall to mind any more enjoyable feasts, though flavoured with the best
of wines and the most intellectual society, and amidst scenes of
richness or splendour, than some repasts eaten amidst the dense bush of
an African forest, with no other companion than the one black follower
whose duty it was to spoor or carry the game, and where the cooking was
simply toasting on a ramrod over the camp-fire some of the steaks from
the buck which an hour previously was roaming freely in the forest.
That unrivalled sauce, "hunger," gave an additional flavour to the
venison, whilst the most robust health and the purest air supplied the
want of many of those addenda which are considered necessities in
civilised dining-rooms.

Thus the breakfast of porcupine and wild pig, though no bread or salt
were added, no tea or sugar, and nothing but a draught of pure water
from a tiny mountain stream near, was relished by those who with a brief
but refreshing sleep had passed the night under the cloudless canopy of
heaven.

Hans had selected the halting-place for the night under some trees on a
spur of a range of mountains which skirted the plains, so that as the
morning dawned he might be able to see a