CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



PORT ELIZABETH AND WALMER. PAGE 



Early ambitions realized — Voyage to South Africa — Cape Town and 

 Wynberg — Profusion of flowers — Port Elizabeth — Christmas 

 decorations — Public library — Malays — Walmer — Hottentot 

 huts — Our little house — Pretty gardens — Honey-suckers — 

 Flowers of Walmer Common — Wax-creeper — Ixias — Scarlet 

 heath — Natal lilies — " Upholstery flower" — Ticks — Commence 

 ostrich-farming — Counting the birds — A ride after an ostrich 9 



CHAPTER H. 



SOME OF OUR PETS. 



Friendliness of South African birds and beasts — Our secretary bird 

 — Ungainly appearance of Jacob — His queer ways — Tragic fate 

 of a kitten — A persecuted fowl — Our Dikkops — A baby buffalo 

 — Wounded buffalo more dangerous than lion — A lucky stumble 

 — Hunter attacked by "rogue" buffalo— A midnight ride — 

 Followed by a lion — Toto — A pugnacious goose — South African 

 climate dangerous to imported dogs — Toto and the crows — 

 Animals offered by Moors in exchange for Toto 2^ 



CHAPTER HI. 



PLANTS OF THE KARROO. 



We move up-country — Situation of farm — Strange vegetation of 

 Karroo district — Karroo plant — Fei-bosch — Brack-hosch — Our 

 ^Qv<Q.x%—Spekbooni—VA\X^x aloes —Thorny plants — IVacht-een- 

 Beetje — Ostriches killed by prickly pear— Finger-poll— Wild 

 tobacco fatal to ostriches— Carelessness of colonists — Euphor- 

 bias — Caudle-bush 46 



CHAPTER IV. 



OUR LITTLE HOME. 



Building operations— A plucking— Ugliness of Cape hou'^es— Our 

 rooms— Fountain in sitting-room a failure — Drowned pets — 

 Decoration of rooms— Colonist must be Jack-of-all-trades — 

 Cape waggons — Shooting expeditions — Strange tale told by 

 Boer 61 



