"OUR BOYS." 63 



had made me nervous and impatient, several times 

 causing me to fear that a fit pf sickness was impending. 



In the meantime I had engaged another boy. He 

 was the poorest and most miserable Kaffir I had seen, 

 scarcely possessing a scrap of clothing, while his skin 

 was of that bluish-grey hue denoting bad health. For a 

 day he had hovered round our men's flesh-pots ; but 

 there was evidently no sympathy felt for the outcast. 

 At length out of charity I gave him some food. Such 

 a look of gratitude lit up his countenance, and it was a 

 face which, under other circumstances, would have been 

 deemed attractive, that I resolved to take him with me, 

 provided he could give a satisfactory account of himself. 

 It happened that Mr. C., one of the magistrates, had 

 come to Ho wick that day to settle some Kaffir dis- 

 putes, so I got one of his interpreters to interrogate the 

 starved-looking lad. Poor fellow ! he had come on foot 

 from several hundred miles up the coast in search of 

 work, in which he had been unsuccessful ; and as he 

 was among strangers, he was reduced almost to the 

 verge of starvation. When informed where I was 

 going, he said, " Yes, I will follow the Bass to the land 

 of the Matabele, and back again to Zulu land." The 

 price of his services was to be fifteen shillings a 

 month, and food ; if he behaved and made himself useful, 

 he should have more ; in the meantime he would have 

 to forelope, Master Jim, who tad hitherto performed 

 that duty, being promoted to the rank of assistant-driver. 



This Jim was a merry, devil-may-care kind of fellow, 

 always with a grin on his face, a tremendous feeder, and 

 a great lover of tobacco. To see him smoke was a treat, 

 for he could blow a cloud twice as big as any other man 

 I know. Our third hand was still the lad that cooked ; 



