96 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



fire-balloon with a charge of dynamite, and, catching 

 the rain on our land, prevent it from going off so 

 disappointingly elsewhere. 



The short Cape winter, corresponding in duration 

 to the English summer, is never severe. Cold winds 

 blow from the direction of Graaff-Reinet on the not 

 very frequent occasions when the higher mountains 

 round that little town are for a short time topped with 

 snow. In June and July the evenings and early 

 mornings are decidedly cold. There is sometimes a 

 little frost at night, and fires are pleasant ; but in the 

 middle of the day there is always warm, bright sun- 

 shine. Altogether, our winter under the Southern 

 Cross has nothing cheerless or depressing about it ; 

 and those to whom the heat of the lonix summer has 

 been a little trying, find the change most bracing and 

 invio'oratini];. 



For farm life in the Karroo much the same kind of 

 clothing is required as in England ; everything must 

 of course be of good strong material, and black or 

 very dark colours are, in that dustiest of lands, to be 

 avoided. Ladies' washing dresses should not be too 

 delicate, nor should they be such as to requite elaborate 

 getting up ; for of all the numerous things which on 

 our isolated farms have to be done — either well, badly, 

 or indifferently — at home, the laundry department is 

 the very furthest from being our forte. The clothes 

 become so discoloured from being continually washed 

 in the yellow water of the dams ; and the Kaffir women 

 — if they profess to starch and iron at all — do it so 



