than six months from that time, several of them were in the
field, and trained to the chase of the elephant, which duty they
performed with all the courage and skill that could have been shown by
hounds of the purest breed!

CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT.

CONCLUSION.

For several years Von Bloom led the life of an elephant-hunter. For
several years the great nwana-tree was his home, and his only companions
his children and domestics. But, perhaps, these were not the least
happy years of his existence, since, during all the time both he and his
family had enjoyed the most estimable of earthly blessings,--health.

He had _not_ allowed his children to grow up without instruction. He
had _not_ permitted them to lapse into the character of mere
"Bush-boys." He had taught them many things from the book of nature,--
many arts that can be acquired as well on the karoo as in the college.
He had taught them to love God, and to love one another. He had planted
in their minds the seeds of the virtuous principles,--honour and
morality,--without which all education is worthless. He had imbued them
with habits of industry and self-reliance, and had initiated them into
many of the accomplishments of civilised life--so that upon their return
to society they might be quite equal to its claims. Upon the whole,
those years of the exile's life, spent in his wilderness home, formed no
blank in his existence. He might look back upon them with feelings of
satisfaction and pleasure.

Man, however, is formed for society. The human heart, properly
organised, seeks communion with the human heart; and the mind,
especially when refined and polished by education, loves the intercourse
of social life, and, when deprived of it, will always yearn to obtain
it.

So was it with the field-cornet. He desired to return once more within
the pale of civilised society. He desired once more to revisit the
scenes where he had so long dwelt in peaceful happiness; he desired once
more to establish himself among his friends and acquaintances of former
days, in the picturesque district of the Graaf Reinet. Indeed, to have
remained any longer in his wilderness home could have served no purpose.
It is true he had grown very much attached to his wild hunter-life, but
it was no longer likely to be profitable. The elephants had completely
forsaken the neighbourhood of the camp, and not one was to be found
within twenty miles of the spot. They had become w