CHAPTER XXII 



A FIGHT WITH FIVE LIONS 



SOON after the British took over British 

 East Africa a large number of Englishmen 

 emigrated to the new colony and took up 

 homesteads. Among this number was a family 

 consisting of father, mother, Fritz a boy of 

 eighteen, and a second son of fourteen. They 

 settled on a beautiful strip of veldt at the west 

 side of the Mwa Hills. 



Naturally, the first duty of a settler is to build 

 a suitable farmhouse, and, as the owner of the 

 new farm was a carpenter by trade, this task 

 was made much easier than it is to most home- 

 steaders. Labour, with the exception of the 

 unskilled and slow natives, was expensive and 

 hard to get, and, as the family was of limited 

 means, every member helped in building the 

 house. 



But let Fritz tell the story as he told it to me: 



"It was Saturday afternoon, and we had 



all been working hard that week. Father and 



mother mixed the mud mortar and laid the 



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