not cunning enough to escape the snares, which were laid
for them every day for a week after; and, before the end of that time,
more than a dozen of them were safely domiciled in a little kennel built
especially for their use, under the shadow of the great nwana-tree.

In less that 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 XLVI.

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 in the Graaf Reinet. Indeed, to have
remained any longer in his wilderness home could have served no purpose.
It