a wonderfully white set of teeth, and he gave vent to
"Yer-her! Yawk, yawk, yawk, yawk! Yor-hor!" Then he helped to outspan
the oxen, and I showed him and the man with the wagon where to find
water. At every order I gave he opened his mouth and laughed at me; but
he eagerly did all I bade, and followed me back to the wagon to help in
unloading the bundles of trees, taking the greatest interest in
everything, and lifting the boxes and packages of stores which had come
with the trees, no matter what their weight, as if he enjoyed putting
forth his tremendous strength.

"Well, Val," said my father as he took out his big knife to cut the
string, and then carefully unlaced it--for string was precious out in
the desert--"I thought I'd chance a few; but it's quite a spec, and I'm
afraid they'll be all dried up. However, we'll try them; and now they
are here we must get them in at once. Mind, I shall look to you to make
them grow if they are still alive."

"How am I to make them grow, father?" I said.

"With water, my boy. You must bring down buckets from the spring till
we have time to dig a channel; and then they'll shift for themselves. I
hope they'll grow, for it will be pleasant for you and Bob to sit under
them sometimes and eat apples and pears such as your father used to have
in his old orchard at home."

"Yes, father," I said; "and for you too."

"Perhaps, my boy; perhaps," he said, with a sigh. "We shall see.--Here,
Jenny!"

My aunt was already at the door, in her print sun-bonnet, and looking
very cross, I thought.

"Yes," she said.

"Give these two men a good hearty meal; I dare say they're pretty
hungry."

"It's all ready, John," she said.

"That's right, my dear," said my father; and then, as if to himself, "I
might have known." Turning to the short, thick-set Dutch Boer in charge
of the wagon, father told him to go to the big wagon-sheet supported on
poles, which we used for a dining-room, and then clapped the big black
on the shoulder, bidding him go too.

"Get two spades, Val," he said as soon as the men were gone; "and you,
Bob, come off that bundle of trees. It wasn't sent all these thousands
of miles by ship and wagon to make you a horse."

I fetched the spades while my father went on unpacking the little trees,
Bob being set to help by unlacing the string from the pleasant-smelling
Russian mats. Before the new arrivals were cast loose, the big black,
with a tremendous sandwich o