ainful emotions. The swarm was
still a full half-mile distant. They appeared to be coming no nearer,--
good!

A ray of hope entered the mind of the field-cornet. He took off his
broad felt hat, and held it up to the full stretch of his arm. The wind
was blowing _from the north_, and the swarm was directly _to the west_
of the kraal. The cloud of locusts had approached from the north, as
they almost invariably do in the southern parts of Africa.

"Yes," said Hendrik, who having been in their midst could tell what way
they were drifting, "they came down upon us from a northerly direction.
When we headed our horses homewards, we soon galloped out from them, and
they did not appear to fly after us; I am sure they were passing
southwards."

Von Bloom entertained hopes that as none appeared due north of the
kraal, the swarm might pass on without extending to the borders of his
farm. He knew that they usually followed the direction of the wind.
Unless the wind changed they would not swerve from their course.

He continued to observe them anxiously. He saw that the selvedge of the
cloud came no nearer. His hopes rose. His countenance grew brighter.
The children noticed this and were glad, but said nothing. All stood
silently watching.

An odd sight it was. There was not only the misty swarm of the insects
to gaze upon. The air above them was filled with birds--strange birds
and of many kinds. On slow, silent wing soared the brown "oricou," the
largest of Africa's vultures; and along with him the yellow "chasse
fiente," the vulture of Kolbe. There swept the bearded "lamvanger," on
broad extended wings. There shrieked the great "Caffre eagle," and side
by side with him the short-tailed and singular "bateleur." There, too,
were hawks of different sizes and colours, and kites cutting through the
air, and crows and ravens, and many species of _insectivora_. But far
more numerous than all the rest could be seen the little
_springhaan-vogel_, a speckled bird of nearly the size and form of a
swallow. Myriads of these darkened the air above--hundreds of them
continually shooting down among the insects, and soaring up again, each
with a victim in its beak. "Locust-vultures" are these creatures named,
though not vultures in kind. They feed exclusively on these insects,
and are never seen where the locusts are not. They follow them through
all their migrations, building their nests, and rearing their young, in
th