114 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



eyes look at him so mildly (when he is on the right 

 side of the fence) that he finds it impossible to believe 

 the stories told him of their wickedness, and nothing 

 but a closer acquaintance can undeceive him. On one 

 of the farms a sturdy new-comer, six feet in height, 

 starting for an early morning walk, was cautioned 

 against going into a certain camp where the ostriches 

 were dangerous. He laughed at his friends' advice, 

 told them he was " not afraid of a dicky-bird ! " and — 

 disdaining the proft'ered tackey — started off' straight- 

 way in the forbidden direction. He did not return 

 home to dinner ; a search was made for him ; and 

 eventually he was found, perched up on a high iron- 

 stone boulder; just out of reach of a large ostrich, which 

 was doing sentry, walking up and down, and keeping 

 a vicious eye on him. There he had sat for hours, 

 nearly roasted alive (ironstone boulders in the Karroo 

 can get so hot in the sun that it blisters your hand to 

 touch them) ; and there he would have had to sit till 

 sundown, had not the timely appearance of his friends 

 relieved him of the too-pressing attentions of the 

 " dicky-bird." 



Another gentleman had a theory that any creature, 

 however savage, could be subdued — " quelled," as he 

 said— by the human eye. One day he tried to quell 

 one of his own ostriches ; with the result that he was 

 presently found by T in a very pitiable pre- 

 dicament, lying flat on the ground ; while the subject 

 of his experiment jumped up and down on him, occa- 

 sionally varying the treatment by sitting on him. 



