CLIMATE OF THE KARROO. 85 



Again and again you are deluded into believing the 

 long, weary drought is indeed nearing its end ; you feel 

 so sure there is a tremendous rain just at hand, that 

 you prepare for action, and, doubting the trust- 

 worthiness of those portions of the roof covered with 

 brack, are careful to remove from beneath them every- 

 thing liable to be spoilt by wet ; then, having set your 

 house in order, you wait eagerly to hear the first 

 pattering of the longed-for drops. They do not come, 

 however ; it all ends in nothing, and soon every cloud 

 is gone, and the sun blazes out once more in pitiless 

 splendour. 



Then at last, after " Wolf ! " has been cried so often 

 that you are off your guard, and obstinately refusing 

 to be taken in by the promising bank of clouds you 

 noticed in the evening have gone off to bed, expecting 

 your waking eyes to rest only on the usual hard, hot, 

 grey-blue sky suddenly, in the middle of the night, 

 you are aroused by a deafening noise, and your first 

 confused, half-dreaming thought is that somehow or 

 other you have got underneath the Falls of Niagara 

 house and all. Then a blue flash wakes you quite up, 

 a terrific roar of thunder shakes the house, and you 

 realize that what for months you have been so longing 

 for has come at last ! But there are penalties to be paid 

 for it ; and an ominous sound of trickling strikes your 

 ear. Your bedroom unfortunately has a brack roof; 

 and through the defective places in the latter, which 

 every moment become larger and more numerous, 

 streams of water are pouring in, till at last the room 



