for us to come up handsome son and ugly mother. 

 Ugly she might be, with her little fretful hostile eyes 

 and her uncertain ever-moving ears, and silent sour 

 and cross ; but stubborn fidelity and reckless courage 

 were hers too ; and all the good Jock had in him came 

 from Jess. 



To see them side by side was enough : every line 

 in his golden brindled coat had its counterpart in 

 her dull markings ; his jaw was hers, with a difference, 

 every whit as determined but without the savage look ; 

 his eyes were hers brown to black as the moods 

 changed yet not fretful and cross, but serenely ob- 

 servant, when quiet, and black, hot and angry, like 

 hers, when roused yet without the look of relentless 

 cruelty ; his ears were hers and yet how different, 

 not shifting, flickering and ever on the move, nor 

 flattened back with the look of most uncertain temper, 

 but sure in their movements and faithful reflectors 

 of more sober moods and more balanced temper, and 

 so often cocked one full and one half with a look 

 of genuinely friendly interest which, when he put his 

 head on one side, seemed to change in a curiously 

 comical way into an expression of quiet amusement. 



The work kept us close to camp and we gave no 

 thought to shooting ; yet Jess and Jock had some good 

 sport together. We gave them courses for breathers 

 after Oribi in the open, but these fleetest of little 

 antelopes left them out of sight in very few minutes. 

 Bushbuck too were plentiful enough, but so wily in 

 keeping to the ^ dark woods and 



deep kloofs that ^/^ss^j^ F*t,i $ unless we organised 



*" ^ * * 



244 



