earest outlook
for us, but after a while the cook, whose nerves had been shaken by the
impetuous advance of the rhino, arose to the demands of the occasion and
set up a table upon which soon appeared some hot tea, some bread and
honey, some beans and deviled ham, and a few knickknacks in the line of
jam and cheese. That was luncheon, and we resolved to do better for
dinner.

We told the cook all about Thanksgiving Day and what its chief purpose
was. We also told him of the beautiful significance of the occasion,
what happy thoughts it inspired, and how much sentiment was attached to
it. Then we told him to get busy. We were in a Thanksgiving mood, being
grateful that we were not riding around on the bowsprit of the rhino,
and also because our relatives and friends at home were well at last
reports, two months old.

True, our guide, who had never been over the trail before and who was
trying to guess the way by instinct, had got us hopelessly becalmed in a
sea of high grass so that we didn't know where we were. But we knew what
we were. We were hungry!

In the meantime we planned and carried into brilliant execution a grouse
hunt. There were lots of grouse in the country through which we had come
and all day long coveys of them had been whirring away from our
advancing outposts. It seemed a simple thing to go out and get a few for
our Thanksgiving dinner, so we gave orders to make camp and consecrated
the afternoon to a grouse quest.

I'll never forget what a formidable looking party it was. When we had
spread out to comb the grass by the river side we looked like a skirmish
line of an army. There were four of us, supported by seventeen
gunbearers and porters. Our battery consisted of four elephant guns,
four heavy rifles, three light rifles, and four shotguns. The latter
were for grouse and the others were for incidental big game which one
must always be prepared for, whether one goes out to shoot grouse or
take snapshots with one's camera.

[Drawing: _The Grouse Hunt_]

We spread out and beat two miles of perfect cover. Then we beat it back
again and finally, after all our Herculean efforts, one lonely bird flew
up and was knocked over. That was the astounding total of our slaughter
and when the army marched back into camp with its one little grouse the
effect was laughable in the extreme. I took a photograph of the entire
group and by good luck the grouse is faintly seen suspended in the
middle.

That night,