fully in the eyes, said " Dad ! You have left out the 

 best part of all. Don't you remember how . . ." 



And the description which followed only emphasises 

 the present writer's unfitness for the task he has 

 undertaken. In the text of the story and in the illus- 

 tration by my friend Mr. Caldwell (who was himself 

 subjected to the same influence) there is left a loophole 

 for fancy : it is open to any one to believe that Jock 

 is just beginning or just ending his aerial excursion. 

 The Important People are not satisfied ; but then 

 the page is not big enough to exhibit Jock at the top 

 of that flight of fancy ! 



From the date of that lesson it was apparent that 

 reputations would suffer if the story of Jock were 

 not speedily embodied in some durable and authori- 

 tative form, and during a long spell of ill health many 

 of the incidents were retold in the form of letters to 

 the Little People. Other Less Important Persons 

 grown-ups read them and sometimes heard tfrem, 

 and so it came about that the story of Jock was to be 

 printed for private circulation, for the Little People 

 and their friends. Then the story was read in manu- 

 script and there came still more ambitious counsels, 

 some urging the human story of the early days, others 

 the wild animal life of South Africa. Conscious of 

 many deficiencies the narrator has left two great 

 fields practically untouched, adhering to the original 

 idea the story of Jock ; and those who come into it, 

 men and animals, come in because of him and the life 

 in which he played so large a part. The attempt to 

 adapt the original letters to the symmetry of a 

 ix 



