124 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



yet I did not hear of any Dick Turpin or Claude 

 Duval having distinguished himself. Many travellers 

 say that the Boers are a very temperate people. I 

 should be inclined to think the reverse, for they will 

 always drink at other people's expense, and are not too 

 proud to ask for more. Beturning to the wagon after 

 dusk, we agreed that after all there was no place like 

 home, although it was only a wagon, and that in the 

 middle of a South African velt. 



Next morning we visited the post-office, butcher's, 

 baker's, and truly the candlestick-maker's, for we wanted 

 a lantern, and had another stroll through the town 

 to see what we could of the wealth, beauty, and fashion. 

 The reward of our curiosity was that I, possibly through 

 being the most prying, got sight of a Dutch beauty. 

 She was about two-and-twenty years old, and at least 

 weighed a stone for every year she had lived ; still, she 

 had a pretty baby face, and wore a clean cotton dress, 

 closed round the waist with a draw-string. 



Down in the flat beneath us we can see our people 

 gathering up the cattle, so we must bid adieu to Harri- 

 smith and all its attractions. By ten o'clock we are 

 once more en route, with no other towns or villages in 

 our way till Potschefstrom, in the Transvaal, is reached. 



To the left is rough, hilly ground, covered with 

 grass, without bush. Morris had remarked to me that 

 he had not yet seen any monkeys ; but " talk of the 

 devil," driver William, with his face grinning as far as 

 his ears would permit, came up, and with intense de- 

 light pointed out thirty or forty baboons feeding on 

 a hillside as quietly, ordinarily, and peaceably as any 

 other people. There was a charming freedom in their 

 actions an utter absence, let me say, of putting on 



