l6 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM, 



" spider " from America, it would have been a comfort, 

 after a long day in town, to avail ourselves of one of 

 the numerous hired carriages for the return journey, 

 were not the drivers of these vehicles so exorbitant in 

 their charges as almost to rival those of New York. 

 They demand ten shillings for the drive to Walmer, 

 taking the passenger only one way ; and this too often 

 in a vehicle so near the last stage of dilapidation as to 

 suggest fears of the final collapse occurring on the road. 

 The importunity of the drivers is most troublesome ; 

 and when, in spite of their efforts, you remain obdurate, 

 and they fail to secure you as a " fare," they do their 

 best to run over you, hoping no doubt that they may 

 thus at least have a chance of driving you to the 

 hospital. Their cab-stand, where, like a row of vultures, 

 they sit waiting for their prey, is on the market-place ; 

 and as you cross the latter, bound for the reading-room, 

 with ears deaf to their shouts, and eyes resolutely fixed 

 on the door of the town hall, leaving no doubt as to your 

 intention not to take a drive, the whole rank move 

 forward in a simultaneous charge ; pursuing and sur- 

 rounding you with artful strategic movements and 

 demoniac cries, and with so evident an intention to 

 knock you down if possible, that when at last you stand 

 safe on the town hall steps, you realize the feelings of 

 Tam O'Shanter on gaining " the keystane of the brig." 

 On the common, about half-way between Port 

 Elizabeth and Walmer, there is a little group of 

 Hottentot huts, shaped like large bee-hives, and made 

 of the strannrest buildino'-material I ever saw, i.e., a 



