180 OSTRICH-FARMING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 



their customers coming for renewals had shown them 

 more, and conversations with auctioneers and others in 

 business had convinced them that one of those terribly 

 depressed times was coming ; caused by what? perhaps 

 nobody can tell, but to which all the colonies are subject; 

 times when property of every description will fall 

 perhaps fifty per cent, and be hardly saleable at that ; 

 perhaps lasting only a few months, and succeeded by a 

 rapid rise to even higher prices than ever ; perhaps 

 lasting years, and followed by a very gradual rise ; — 

 a time when those that have been laughed at as slow- 

 going and cautious in the good times, are investing 

 their savings in buying up insolvent estates at prices 

 that will some day prove a fortune. A time when those 

 who in the good times have been the admired and en- 

 vied ones for their dash and speculative turn, are going 

 crash in all directions. 



Juvenis does not yet see all this, but he sees that 

 his speculation is becoming a serious matter. He had 

 as many birds as his farm, his staff, and his plant would 

 manage, and he cannot attend to these extra birds 

 properly ; already some have got lost, the others have 

 fallen off in condition, and some have even died, more 

 or less of poverty. At last he makes up his mind to 

 sell them by auction, and is right glad to be rid of 

 them, at a loss of thirty per cent, and all his trouble. 



