CH. Ill] CLIFFORD AND HAROLD HILL G7 



to look for the man. Crippled though he was, the 

 hunter managed to chnib a small tree ; and tliough 

 the lion might have got him out of it, the dog inter- 

 fered. VV^henever the lion came toward the tree the 

 dog worried him, and kept him off until, at the shouts 

 and torches of the approaching Kaffir boys, he sullenly 

 retired, and the hunter was rescued. 



Percival had a narrow escape from a lion, which 

 nearly got him, though probably under a misunder- 

 standing. He was riding through a wet spot of ground, 

 where the grass was four feet high, when his horse 

 suddenly burst into a run, and the next moment a lion 

 had galloped almost alongside of him. Probably the 

 lion thought it was a zebra, for when l*ercival, leaning 

 over, yelled in his face, the lion stopped short. But he 

 at once came on again, and nearly caught the horse. 

 However, they were now out of the tall grass, and the 

 lion gradually pulled up when they reached the open 

 coimtry. 



The two Hills, Clifford and Harold, were running an 

 ostrich farm. The lions sometimes killed their ostriches 

 and stock, and the Hills in return had killed several 

 lions. The Hills were fine fellows — Africanders, as 

 their forefathers for three generations had been, and 

 frontiersmen of the best kind. From the first moment 

 they and I became fast friends, for we instinctively 

 understood one another, and found that we felt alike on 

 all the big questions, and looked at life, and especially 

 the life of effort led by the pioneer settler, from the 

 same standpoint. They reminded me at every moment 

 of those Western ranchmen and home-makers with 

 j whom I have always felt a special sense of companion- 

 ' ship, and with whose ideals and aspirations I have always 

 ' felt a special sympathy. A couple of months before 



