s then
listened attentively to the sounds, and, having come to a decision as to
which end of the egg contained the head of the bird, she cracked the
shell at that point and returned it to the nest.

Thus aided, the infant ostrich, whose head and feet lay in
juxtaposition, began life most appropriately with its strongest point--
put its best foot foremost; drove out the end of its prison with a kick,
and looked astonished. One or two more kicks and it was out. Next time
its foster-mother visited the nest she found the little one free,--but
subdued, as if it knew it had been naughty,--and with that "well--what--
next?" expression of countenance which is peculiar to very young birds
in general.

When born, this little creature was about the size of a small barn-door
hen, but it was exceeding weak as well as long in the legs, and its
first efforts at walking were a mere burlesque.

The feeding of this foundling was in keeping with its antecedents. Mrs
Marais was a thoroughgoing but incomprehensible woman. One would have
thought that boiled sheep's liver, chopped fine, and hens' eggs boiled
hard, were about the most violently opposed to probability in the way of
food for an ostrich, old or young. Yet that is the food which she gave
this baby. The manner of giving it, too, was in accordance with the
gift.

Sitting down on a low stool, she placed the patient--so to speak--on its
back, between her knees, and held it fast; then she rammed the liver and
egg down its throat with her fingers as far as they would reach, after
which she set it on its legs and left it for a few minutes to
contemplation. Hitching it suddenly on its back again, she repeated the
operation until it had had enough. In regard to quantity, she regulated
herself by feeling its stomach. In the matter of drink she was more
pronounced than a teetotaler, for she gave it none at all.

Thus she continued perseveringly to act until the young ostrich was old
enough to go out in charge of a little Hottentot girl named Hreikie, who
became a very sister to it, and whose life thence-forward was spent
either in going to sleep under bushes, on the understanding that she was
taking care of baby, or in laughing at the singular way in which her
charge waltzed when in a facetious mood.

There is no doubt that this ostrich would have reached a healthy
maturity if its career had not been cut short by a hyena.

Not until many years after this did "ostrich-farming