HOW WE FARED. 221 



about the place, especially with a pretty little duyher 

 antelope. This gentle and timid little favourite — a 

 short-lived pet, which, w^andering one day too far from 

 home, was shot by a Boer in mistake for a wild animal 

 — was several times attacked so savagely by the 

 vengeful Jacob, that, if Wells had not beaten off the 

 assailant, the little buck would have been killed. For- 

 tunately Jacob, when excited, always made such a 

 horrible noise, that we could hear when a battle was 

 going on, and rush to the rescue. As the drought 

 continued Jacob took to wandering further and further 

 afield, coming to the house only on rare occasions, 

 until at last he became almost like a wild bird; and 

 we have little doubt that these roving propensities, at 

 a time when water was only to be found at the few- 

 and-far-between homesteads, led at last to the poor old 

 fellow's death from thirst — a sad end for one of the 

 most comical, if not the best-tempered of our pets. 



Game, of course, forms a very welcome break in the 

 monotony of constant goat and mutton. The antelopes, 

 though by no means plentiful, are all excellent eating, 

 and afford good sport. The graceful springbok, one 

 of the most common, is capable of becoming very 

 tame ; and, with its slender limbs and bright-coloured, 

 variegated coat, it is, but for its rather goat-like face, 

 one of the prettiest of pet animals. On a large neigh- 

 bouring farm the springbok were preserved, and now 

 and then the somewhat even tenour of Karroo existence 

 would be enlivened by a hunt, sometimes of several 

 days' duration. The Queen's birthday is a favourite 



