can't very well be as bad as the snakes; and if one
makes up one's mind not to trouble one's self about the one, one need
not trouble one's self about the other."

"All right, Nick," said Wilmore. "Now then, about these parrots.
They're very shy chaps, and will keep out of shot, if they can; and we
mustn't throw away powder by firing, unless with a pretty safe prospect
of bringing one down. I think I'll creep round, and hide behind that
big trunk yonder. Then you shy a stone up into the tree in which they
are sitting, and they'll most probably fly out into the open, and give
me a good shot."

Wilmore and Gilbert conducted their joint manoeuvres with so much skill,
that before supper-time, half a dozen good-sized parrots had been
bagged, and their flesh when boiled was pronounced by all to be
excellent. After supper the doctor informed the party that Omatoko, as
he called himself, had now quite recovered his senses, and had held a
long conversation with him; the particulars of which he was ready to
communicate, if they wished to hear it. "Hear it? to be sure we do,"
said Nick. "I've been longing to learn all about it, and if I had had
any idea that he would have been able to talk, I shouldn't have gone out
parrot shooting."

"You wouldn't have understood what he said," observed Lavie. "He told
his story in Dutch. His knowledge of English was very small when he
came to try it. He says he belonged to a tribe that formerly lived a
good way to the south of this--not far from the mouth of the Gariep, I
fancy, from his description. There were a good many farms belonging to
Dutch owners in the neighbourhood; but Omatoko's was a powerful tribe,
and they seem for a good many years to have lived unmolested by their
European neighbours. But about fourteen or fifteen years ago, some
Englishmen--traders probably sent by some commercial house--landed near
their village, and offered them more liberal terms for their skins and
ivory than the Dutch had allowed. Finding the trade profitable, the
English returned in the following year, and by-and-by ran up a few huts,
where they carried on what promised to be a very lucrative business. It
was from them that Omatoko picked up the few words of English which he
knows, and he appears to have contracted a great liking for them."

"Of course he did," said Frank, "old England against the world!"

"With all my heart, Frank," rejoined the doctor, "only the English are
not always r