judicious mixture of a third-class carriage
and a cattle-truck. Of course, wood is the only fuel used, and that
but sparingly, for it is exceedingly costly.

There was still much to be done by the afternoon--many visitors to
receive, notes to write and packages to arrange, for our traveling of
these fifty-two miles spreads itself over a good many hours, as you
will see. About three o'clock the government mule-wagon came to the
door. It may truly and literally be described as "stopping the way,"
for not only is the wagon itself a huge and cumbrous machine, but
it is drawn by eight mules in pairs, and driven by a couple of black
drivers. I say "driven by a couple of drivers," because the driving
was evidently an affair of copartnership: one held the reins--such
elaborate reins as they were! a confused tangle of leather--and the
other had the care of two or three whips of differing lengths. The
drivers were both jet black--not Kafirs, but Cape blacks--descendants
of the old slaves taken by the Dutch. They appeared to be great
friends, these two, and took earnest counsel together at every rut and
drain and steep pinch of the road, which stretched away, over hill and
dale, before us, a broad red track, with high green hedges on either
hand. Although the rain had not yet fallen long or heavily, the
ditches were all running freely with red, muddy water, and the dust
had already begun to cake itself into a sticky, pasty red clay. The
wagon was shut in by curtains at the back and sides, and could hold
eight passengers easily. Luckily for the poor mules, however, we
were only five grown-up people, including the drivers. The road was
extremely pretty, and the town looked very picturesque as we gradually
rose above it and looked down on it and the harbor together. Of a
fine, clear afternoon it would have been still nicer, though I was
much congratulated on the falling rain on account of the absence of
its alternative--dust. Still, it was possible to have too much of a
good thing, and by the time we reached Pine Town, only fourteen miles
away, the heavy roads were beginning to tell on the poor mules, and
the chill damp of the closing evening made us all only too thankful to
get under the shelter of a roadside inn (or hotel, as they are called
here), which was snug and bright and comfortable enough to be a credit
to any colony. It seemed the most natural thing in the world to be
told that this inn was not only a favorite place for pe