cease gazing at such pretty
things.

"I hope papa will stay here a long time," she said to her companion,
little Jan.

"And I hope so too. Oh! Trueey, what a fine tree yon is! Look! nuts as
big as my head, I declare. Bless me, sis! how are we to knock some of
them down?"

And so the children conversed, both delighted with the new scenes around
them.

Although all the young people were inclined to be happy, yet they were
checked in their expression of it, by observing that there was a cloud
on the brow of their father. He had seated himself under the great tree,
but his eyes were upon the ground, as though he were busy with painful
reflections. All of them noticed this.

His reflections were, indeed, painful--they could not well have been
otherwise. There was but one course left for him--to return to the
settlements, and begin life anew. But how to begin it? What could he do?
His property all gone, he could only serve some of his richer
neighbours; and for one accustomed all his life to independence, this
would be hard indeed.

He looked towards his five horses, now eagerly cropping the luxuriant
grass that grew under the shadow of the cliffs. When would they be ready
to trek back again? In three or four days he might start. Fine animals,
most of them were--they would carry the wagon lightly enough.

So ran the reflections of the field-cornet. He little thought at the
moment that those horses would never draw wagon more, nor any other
vehicle. He little thought that those five noble brutes were doomed!

Yet so it was. In less than a week from that time, the jackals and
hyenas were quarrelling over their bones. Even at that very moment while
he watched them browsing, the poison was entering their veins, and their
death-wounds were being inflicted. Alas! alas! another blow awaited Von
Bloom.

The field-cornet had noticed, now and again, that the horses seemed
uneasy as they fed. At times they started suddenly, whisked their long
tails, and rubbed their heads against the bushes.

"Some fly is troubling them," thought he, and had no more uneasiness
about the matter.

It was just that--just a fly that was troubling them. Had Von Bloom
known what that fly was, he would have felt a very different concern
about his horses. Had he known the nature of that little fly, he would
have rushed up with all his boys, caught the horses in the greatest
hurry, and led them far away from those dark cliffs. But he knew not the