ng take
place, it would be suppressed very promptly; and in any case I did not
believe for a moment that the savages would dare to penetrate so far
into the colony as Bella Vista, or even as far as Triannon: while the
"scare", trifling and unfounded as I believed it to be, afforded me an
excellent excuse for a trip to Port Elizabeth, which town I had not
visited for more than six months, my father having accompanied the wagon
on the previous journey; also it justified me in my determination to
purchase a new rifle--one of the very newest and most up-to-date weapons
that I could possibly procure, the rifle which I had been using for the
previous six years being a flintlock affair, and worn out at that. On
the following morning we were astir at an even earlier hour than usual,
for, the trek oxen not having been worked for some time, I was anxious
to make a good start and get well on my way before the heat of the day
set in. My mother expressed some surprise at the apparently hurried
character of the expedition; but when it was explained that Mr
Lestrange had run out of ammunition, while our own stock was running
low, she was at once satisfied, for at that time hunting was practically
the only amusement open to the farmer, and it was also imperatively
necessary that he should be amply provided with means to check the
increase of the more predatory animals in the neighbourhood of his farm.
Also my mother, being a good housewife, was far more inclined to avail
herself of the opportunity afforded by the trip to provide herself with
an ample stock of such things as could only be procured at Port
Elizabeth than she was to search curiously for another and deeper motive
for the trip than the one which my father had given her.

The wagon, with a light load of skins and horns, got away early, in
charge of Jan, the Hottentot driver, and then we all sat down to
breakfast, as merry and jovial a party, probably, as any in South Africa
that day, much of our amusement arising from the fact that my mother and
Nell were continually thinking of some fresh commission which I was to
be sure to execute for them before leaving Port Elizabeth, the pair of
them keeping me so busy jotting down their instructions in my notebook
that I could scarcely find time to eat or drink. But at length the
merry meal came to an end: we all rose from the table and adjourned to
the stoep, before which Piet, my after-rider, was walking the horses to
and fro, wi