on't know
that I have any objection to it; it will be a change for you, and of
course there will be no chance of the waggons being near if any fighting
goes on. What do you think, Jackson? I suppose your boy will want to
go if mine does?"

"Well, I don't mind," Mr Jackson answered. "I suppose it will not be
for long, for the boy is useful on the farm now. However, as you say,
it will be a change, and boys like a little excitement. Well, I suppose
I must say yes; they are fifteen now, and old enough to keep out of
mischief."

The boys were delighted at the prospect of the expedition, and at once
went out to talk matters over together. They cordially agreed in the
hope that the Zulus would fight, and promised themselves that if
possible they would see something of it. Their fathers would, they
thought, allow them to take their horses, and it would be easy, if the
waggons were left behind, to ride forward with the troops, and see what
went on.

Two days later the four teams started together for Pieter-Maritzburg.
Contrary to their expectations the boys were not allowed to take their
horses.

"No, no, Dick," Mr Humphreys had said, when his son asked him, "no
horses, if you please; I know what you will be up to. Galloping about
to see what is going on, and getting into all sorts of mischief and
scrapes. No, if you go, you go with the waggons, to see that everything
goes straight, to translate orders to the Kaffirs, and to learn
something of waggon-driving across a rough country. For between this
place and Pieter-Maritzburg it is such a fair road that you really learn
nothing in that way; once get into a cross country, and you will see how
they get waggons down steep kloofs, across streams, and over rough
places. No, you and Tom will stick to the waggons. I have been fixing
a number of rings to-day underneath one of them, and your mother and the
women have been at work, making a sort of curtain to hook on all round;
so at night you will have a comfortable place to sleep in, for the
waggons will likely enough be so filled with cases and stores that there
will be no sleeping in them. You can take the double-barrel as well as
your Winchester, as of an evening you may be able to get a shot
sometimes at game, which will vary your rations a bit. You must take
with you a stock of tinned meats from Pieter-Maritzburg, for I do not
suppose they will issue regular rations to you. So long as you are this
side of the