sir: some was shot down by the soldiers,
some was killed by the natives, some was lost in the bush and died o'
hunger and thirst, while the blacks speared the rest all but one, and he
gave himself up. They do a lot o' mischief, these chaps, when they take
to the bush, sir; but, fortunately for honest folk, they all come to a
bad end."

Then came a more leisure time, when old Samson took a holiday, as he
called it--that is to say, he worked from daylight to darkness over his
rather neglected garden; while Nic had leisure to think again of his
natural history specimens, and went out with his gun; but he did not
feel at all keen about sitting down in a woody place near the river to
fish and offer himself as a mark for any black who meant to practise
hurling his spear. It was so much more satisfactory to mount Sour
Sorrel and ride off, gun in hand, through the open woodland with the
soft breeze sweeping by his cheek, and pick up a beautifully feathered
bird from time to time.

The injured sheep had grown quite well, and, save that it limped as it
grazed, its leg was as strong as ever; "and that lameness does not
interfere with its promising to be a good mother," said the doctor,
smiling, as he pointed to the pair of white lambs gambolling by the lame
sheep's side.

"Did you ever satisfy yourself as to how its leg was broken?" said Nic.

"No, my boy; and I did not want to. I have my suspicions, but I let
them rest. It is the same at most of the stations--the free men dislike
the bond. It is natural. And now that things are going on peaceably,
we will let them rest."

One day, quite by accident, the boy found himself thrown in contact
again with Leather, whose brown, deeply lined countenance always
brightened when Nic came across him somewhere with his sheep.

"I say, Leather," he said, as he sat on his nag watching the man busily
carving a stick he had cut: "you remember telling me about how the
blacks followed the bees?"

"Yes, sir."

"Can you show me?"

"Yes," said Leather, smiling sadly; and he looked about till he found a
tree with some of its seed-vessels full of fine silky cotton, smeared
one end of a twig with a bead of gum from another tree, and then walked
on, followed by Nic, till they came to a patch of bushes, whose fragrant
blossoms had attracted the bees by the dozen.

One pollen-laden fellow was soon caught, the gum stick touched its back,
the white cotton was brought in contact, and the uni