CHAPTER X. 



MY FRIEND INVALIDED. 



One of the Boers' Wagons comes to Grief We arrange for a New Wheel A 

 Useful Hill Wilful William Another Smash Our Dogs Mother and 

 Child Working like Slaves No Progress Off for Help HiU Cattle in 

 Africa Friendly English They put us to rights Bushman's River Acci- 

 dents to our Horse and Pony The Superintendent of the Natal Mounted 

 Police Morris so 111 that he must Recruit A Sad Meal I Part from my 

 Friend Holly's Sorrow Alone Off for a Hunt The Natal Partridge 

 Quail The Dogs in Full Cry Filling a Pipe : the Various Processes, 

 hurriedly, meditatively, angrily A Shot at Bush-buck The Game at Bay 

 Bring it Down A Warning ahout Bush-buck. 



OUR treck commenced by descending a steep grade. 

 One of the wagons belonging to our friends the Boers 

 was very old, and as it made a sweep round a curve the 

 brake gave way, and the hind wheel struck a boulder, 

 consequently several spokes and part of the felloe were 

 scattered in different directions ; fortunately this stopped 

 its further progress, or otherwise it would have run into 

 all the wagons in front of it, and caused destruction 

 of the most serious nature. On visiting the scene of 

 the disaster, I found Hendrick sitting by the roadside 

 consoling himself with his never-extinguished pipe, sur- 

 rounded by a host of comforters ; for fully ten minutes 

 " Mein Gott ! " was the only expression I heard any of 

 them use. At length the wheel was examined, and it 

 was clear at a glance that nothing could be done to it 

 that would make it serviceable without the aid of a 

 wagon-wright. A mile farther on, by the little river 



