vitality ! And then there was old Zwaartland, the 

 coal-black front ox, and the best of all : the sober 

 steadfast leader of the span, who knew his work by 

 heart and answered with quickened pace to any call 

 of his name ; swinging wide at every curve to avoid 

 cutting corners ; easing up, yet leading free, at every 

 steep descent, so as neither to rush the incline nor 

 entangle the span ; holding his ground, steady as 

 a rock when the big pull came, heedless of how the 

 team swayed and strained steadfast even when his 

 mate gave in. He stood out from all the rest ; the 

 massive horns like one huge spiral pin passed through 

 his head, eight feet from tip to tip balancing with 

 easy swing ; the clean limbs and small neat feet moving 

 with the quick precision of a buck's tread ; and the 

 large grave eyes so soft and clear and deep ! 



For those who had eyes to see the book lay open : 

 there, as elsewhere ; there, as always. Jock, with his 

 courage, fidelity and concentration, held the secrets 

 of success ! Jim dissolute, turbulent and savage 

 could yield a lesson too ; not a warning only, sometimes 

 a crude but clear example ! The work itself was full 

 of test and teaching ; the hard abstemious life had its 

 daily lessons in patience and resource, driven home 

 by every variety of means and incident on that unkindly 

 road. And the dumb cattle in their plodding toil, 

 in their sufferings from drought and over-work, and 

 in their strength and weakness taught and tested 

 too. There is little food for self-content when all 

 that is best and worst comes out ; but there is much 

 food for thought. 



2 34 



