274 THE HUNTER'S ARCADIA. 



human family prefer to resign life in such a place. 

 For my part it is not so ; when the final summons 

 comes for me to attend my last parade, I should 

 select to obey it in harness and actively em- 

 ployed. 



Our want of success in our first essay against 

 the spring-haas induced us to change our plan of 

 campaign at the next mealie garden we visited. This 

 was to surround it and enter it simultaneously from 

 all sides, thus driving the occupants into the centre, 

 when we hoped to be able to account for them more 

 satisfactorily than we had done. A few whistles 

 announced that all was in readiness, so we entered , 

 I having my Zulu henchman in close attendance, 

 with a lantern suspended a little behind me and 

 over my head. Soon I got several shots, but equally 

 rapidly I recognised that firing with a shot-gun 

 under such circumstances was about as dangerous to 

 the beaters as it was to the game, so, from necessity, 

 I was compelled to desist. Not so with my black 

 friends ; little cared they where their knobkerries 

 went and what damage they did, and so reckless and 

 fast was their discharge that I found myself in as 

 hot a corner as ever I desire to be. In dodging 



