"Why, we could have had cows, Mr Mark, sir, and then there would have
been butter, and milk for the tea and coffee every day."

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

SMALL FRIENDS.

But they might have had fresh venison steaks for breakfast that morning
instead of the "buck bones stooed," as Dan called his dish, or rather,
tin, for as the party took their seats beneath the wide-spreading tree
where the meal was spread, they were all startled by quite a little
procession winding amongst the trees. At least fifty of the pigmies
were approaching, led by the miniature chief in his bangles and with his
ornamented spear, and ended by four of the little fellows bearing a
neatly woven hurdle upon which lay the doctor's patient, carried
shoulder high.

"Tell them to set him under that tree, Mak," said the doctor--"yonder."

He pointed to the place meant, and had a little difficulty in making
their guide understand.

"I had better make that my surgery, boys," said the doctor, as he
hurriedly finished his breakfast, and moved into the shade where the
black, glossy-skinned little fellows were waiting patiently, ready to
gaze at him with something like awe. They formed a half circle a short
distance away, while he went down on one knee beside the hurdle, Mark
and Dean standing just behind, and Dan, according to the orders he
received, having ready a bowl, a sponge, a can of water, and the
doctor's case, while Sir James seated himself against a tree and Mak,
spear-armed, stood beside him, looking frowning and important, as if
everyone was working under his orders.

"Capital!" said the doctor, as he examined the wound, and then proceeded
to re-dress it, Dan grasping his wants as readily as if he had been a
surgeon's mate on board a man-of-war.

To the surprise of the boys the little patient evinced no sense of pain,
and when the doctor had finished, his face lit up with the nearest
approach to a smile that had been seen upon the countenance of any of
the pigmies.

"Getting on splendidly," said the doctor, patting him on the shoulder.
"There, you may go."

At the word "go," Mak, who had been standing like a black marble statue,
started into life, and a word or two, accompanied by signs, resulted in
the little bearers coming quickly forward, raising the hurdle, and
beginning to move off, followed by the rest of the party, and a few
minutes later they had disappeared amongst the trees.

"Well," said the doctor, "it doesn't seem as