CLIMATE OF THE KARROO, 89 



anything but an easy matter to keep your feet, and if 

 you fell, you would go into a perfect bath of mud. In 

 some places lie accumulations of hailstones (accounting 

 for the icy coldness of that impromptu shower-bath), 

 and, though partially melted, some of them are still of 

 the size of hazel nuts. The rain is over ; and the 

 friendly clouds to which we owe so much are already 

 far off, and lie in white, round, solid-looking masses 

 along the horizon. The sky, as if softened by its 

 tempest of passion, seems of a bluer and more tender 

 tint than it has been for a long time, nnd all nature 

 appears full of joy and thanksgiving. From all sides 

 you hear the loud chorus of myriads of rejoicing frogs, 

 all croakinor con^Tatulatious to each other, and all 

 talking at once ; they seem to have sprung suddenly 

 into existence since last night, and their noise, discord- 

 ant as it is, is not unwelcome after the long silence of 

 the drouj^ht. 



Toto, the instant he catches sight of the water, 

 rushes out of the house, gallops wildly down to the 

 dam, and plunges in, to swim round and round and 

 round, barkinof with deliixht. He seems as if he could 

 not have enoucjh of the water ; for when, after a longr 

 time, he has come out, and is on his way back to us, 

 he suddenly changes his mind, and dashes back for 

 another bathe. Then he seems to lose his head alto- 

 gether, and vents his wild spirits in a sort of frenzied 

 war-dance along the banks of the dam ; seriously up- 

 setting the composure, as well as the dignity, of the 

 crow Bobby, a bird of neat and cleanly habits, who, 



