4 Remittance Men . ' 241 



finished with his companion, and had driven him out of the 

 enclosure, the goat followed him, and the strange pair went 

 off at full gallop to the distant pasturage, from which they 

 had been taken. It is worthy of remark that this friendship 

 had been cemented while these animals were in a practically 

 wild state. While at Cape Town I noticed the existence of a 

 friendship between a horse and a cow, both of whom, by 

 keeping constantly together, showed that they valued each 

 other's society. On more than one occasion, I have known 

 amicable relations to be entertained between a cat and a 

 horse. In such instances the love of puss appeared to me to 

 be wholly selfish, and that she liked to lie on the horse's 

 back, because it supplied her with a warm couch, from which 

 this inveterate lover of ease and pleasure could watch the 

 movements of the mice that came out in search of the grains 

 of corn which had fallen from the manger. A racing pony 

 mare which I owned, and which was barren, indulged in the 

 kindly freak, when she had been turned out to grass in her 

 old age, of adopting a motherless foal, and was never happy 

 unless it was close to her side. Captain Beresford of the 

 Royal Artillery once had in India a racing pony called Pot- 

 boy, who would go nowhere unless he was accompanied by a 

 particularly ugly and worthless pony mare, who accordingly 

 spent her time walking about training grounds and attending 

 race meetings, at which her friend Potboy was engaged to run. 

 If she did not go down with him to the starting-post, he would 

 persistently refuse to go forward when the flag was dropped. 



A man who has seen the world, and especially if he has 

 been a soldier, is certain to meet with in South Africa some 

 of his companions of former days and of different scenes. 

 The majority of these exiles are ' wasters,' as a rule, from 

 ' drink,' though in a few cases absolute incapacity for busi- 

 ness is their only fault One in twenty, to take a liberal 

 estimate, makes money, and attains to a good position. In 

 all * foreign parts ' are to be found a class of Englishmen, 

 who, to use a New Zealand expression, we may call ' remit- 



Q 



