1 82 THE HUNTER'S ARCADIA. 



" Because I thought I might hit the old man. 

 Why didn't you ? " 



" Because I thought I'd hit you." 



So we both laughed over the absurdity of the 

 whole affair, and at the beaters' discomfiture, and 

 there and then pitched into them, like considerate 

 white men, for their want of pluck and the facility 

 with which they could be put to flight. 



It was well for all parties that this vlakke-vark was 

 the one that had been so severely wounded a short 

 time previously. If such had not been the case, I have 

 little doubt that some of us would have had to indent 

 heavily on the medicine chest for diachylon plaster. 

 But I am going the pace too fast, for I am still bound 

 literally "neck and crop" with the wait-a-bits, and no 

 easy matter had I to release myself; in fact, I almost 

 doubt whether I could have done so but for the 

 assistance of my hunting-knife, for the moment you 

 move to disengage yourself from the thorns of one 

 tendril those of another are sure to lay hold of you. 



The wait-a-bit, or wacht-an-beckee of the Boers, 

 deserves a word of notice, for its name occurs in every 

 book of travel that treats of South Africa. It is a 

 long, thin, green climber, belonging to the acacia 



