outhward bound from the far interior. These men were
travelling down-country with heavy loads of ivory, ostrich feathers,
skins, and other produce, and they had with them a big troop of cattle
obtained in barter. In these fitful encounters in the African
wilderness men are always well met, and it needed no pressing from the
new-found acquaintances to induce them to outspan together, and combine
forces for Christmas cheer and Christmas chatter. A brief council of
war soon settled the all-important question of commissariat.
Smallfield, the younger of the traders, had shot a good rooibok the
evening before, which furnished venison for all, and they had already
baked a store of bread from fresh Boer meal. The new-comers, on their
side, freshly equipped from Kimberley, could provide tinned
plum-puddings, tinned tomatoes, peas, jams, and other luxuries,
including dried onions, most precious of vegetables in the veldt; and
they had further some excellent Scotch whisky. They had, besides, half
a dozen brace of guinea-fowl and pheasants, shot during the day in the
jungles bordering the river, so that all the concomitants of a capital
African banquet were ready to hand.

Just at sundown the preparations were complete, and no merrier party,
you may swear, ever sat down to their Christmas meal. They supped by
the light of a roaring camp-fire, eked out by a lantern or two placed on
the cases that served for tables. The servants were enjoying themselves
at another fire at a little distance; the oxen lay peacefully at their
yokes; the wagons loomed large alongside, their white tents reflecting
cheerfully the ruddy blaze of the fire; the night was perfect, still and
warm, and the stars, like a million diamond sparks, scintillated in the
intense darkness of the dome above. What wonder, then, that all felt
happy and contented?

Supper at length over, the coffee-kettle was banished to obscurity and
the whisky produced. The travellers lit their pipes and toasted their
absent friends and each other, and then ensued a long and delightful
evening.

The traders were two capital, manly fellows, well versed in the sports
and toils and pleasures of the far interior; the new-comers themselves
had been in the hunting veldt before, and they had all, therefore, many
things in common. Many and many a yarn of the chase and adventure they
exchanged; many a head of gallant game they slew again by the cheerful
blaze. The up-country trekkers