222 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



occasion for these festive gatherings; and from far and 

 wide, some from distances of two or three days' 

 journey, travelling on horseback or in roomy American 

 spiders and carts capable of accommodating large 

 family parties, visitors arrive in rapid succession, till 

 the house — which at these times seems endowed with 

 even more than the usual elasticity of the hospitable 

 colonial homes — appears like some large hotel over- 

 flowing with guests. In the extensive plains surround- 

 ing the house the chase goes on merrily throughout 

 the whole day; many of the hunted bucks being 

 observable from the verandah as they speed lightly 

 along, with a bounding motion suggestive of india- 

 rubber balls, and with the sunlight flashing upon the 

 rido-e of lono- white bristles alon<r the back, invisible 

 when the animal is in repose, but erected when it is 

 startled. 



In the evening the trophies of the battue, sometimes 

 amounting to the number of thirty, are laid side by side 

 in close ranks upon the ground in front of the house, 

 forming a noble display. The day's adventures are re- 

 counted, with much chaffing of the by no means few 

 who have been bucked off or who have otherwise come 



to grief ; T on one occasion bearing off the palm as 



the butt of the most pitiless jokes, his horse, declining 

 the superadded weight of a fine buck, having deposited 

 him on his head, in which acrobatic posture he is re- 

 ported to have remained standing long enough to give 

 rise to much speculation among the onlookers as to 

 whether he intended finally to land on face or back. 



