140 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



and with more bargaining, we bought a young paauw 

 (pronounced " pow "). This game bird (the great bus- 

 tard) grows to an immense size, some being occasionally 

 shot which measure nine feet across the outspread 

 wings ; but fortunately considering the number of 

 passengers already on board the present specimen, 

 being but a chick, was no larger than a fine fowl. 



When we arrived at last at our original destination, 

 the young ladies of the house presented us with a 

 pretty little baby hare, which had just been caught ; 

 and with this wee creature nestling in my lap, and the 

 paauw and the ostriches all scrambling about among 

 our legs and apparently not on the best of terms, we 

 drove the twenty miles home. The poor paauw was 

 very unhappy, and kept bewailing his fate in a long, 

 weird cry, like the moaning of the wind ; whence he 

 immediately acquired his name of " the melancholy 

 Jaques." We had an amusing though rather anxious 

 journey ; for the spider consisting simply of a kind 

 of magnified Japanese tea-tray, supporting the lightest 

 of seats, and mounted on four wheels, almost bicycle- 

 like in their slenderness was hardly the safest thing 

 in which to convey restless live stock which was not 

 fastened or secured in any way. The road, too, was 

 terrible ; indeed, in one place it resembled a steep, 

 rocky staircase, and after every bad jolt I looked 

 anxiously back to see if any of our creatures were 

 lying on the ground. Thanks to T 's careful driv- 

 ing, however, we brought the whole collection safely 

 home, none the worse for their long journey. 



