son; "but Morgenstern is
honest. He charges well for his corn and meal, but he'll give you just
measure, and will deal with you as fairly as he would with me. Old
Uncle Schlagen would, as soon as he saw you--a boy--coming alone, set to
work to see if he couldn't rob you of a span of oxen, saying they were
his, and trick you over the stores in every way he could."

"Then I'll go to old Morningstar's."

"You won't mind going?"

"Oh yes, I shall, because it will be so lonely; but I'll go."

"I don't like sending you, little un; and there's another difficulty."

"Oh, never mind that; it's all difficulties out here."

"True; but some are bigger than others."

"Well, what's the big one now?" said Dyke contemptuously, as if he had
grown so hardened that he could face anything.

"Jack," said Emson laconically.

"What! Jack? Yes, he'd better be," cried Dyke. "If he gives me any of
his nonsense, he'll have a rap over the head with the barrel of my gun."

"How much of that is honest pluck, old chap, and how much bunkum?" said
Emson, speaking very seriously.

"I don't know," cried Dyke, colouring; "I don't think there's any bounce
in it, Joe. I meant it honestly."

"But he is a man, and you are a boy."

"Oh yes, he's a man, and he bullies and threatens Tanta Sal, and makes
believe that he is going to spear her, and directly she rushes at him,
he runs. I don't think I should be afraid of Jack."

"Neither do I, little un," cried Emson warmly. "That will do. I was
nervous about this. I felt that he might begin to show off as soon as
you two were away from me, and if he fancied that you were afraid of
him, he would be master to the end of the journey."

"But if it came to a row, Joe, and I was horribly afraid of him, I
wouldn't let him see it. Perhaps I should be, but--Oh no, I wouldn't
let him know."

"That'll do, old fellow," said Emson, looking at his brother proudly.
"You shall go, and I'll take care of the stock and--Here! Look, look!"

This last in a tone of intense excitement, for a herd of zebra seemed
suddenly to have risen out of the ground a couple of miles away, where
nothing had been visible before, the beautifully striped, pony-like
animals frisking and capering about, and pausing from time to time to
browse on the shoots of the sparsely spread bushes. There were hundreds
of them, and the brothers sat watching them for some minutes.

"Not what I should have chosen for food," said Emson at