263 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



large or contemptibly small scale ; on the contrary, it 

 is considered rather clever and smart to "do a shot" on 

 the guileless and unsuspecting new chum, fresh from 

 a country where a somewhat different code of honour 

 obtains. 



Business jealousies, too, are another source of trouble 

 to the uninitiated. If any farmer has a project which 

 seems likely to turn out a good thing for him, he had 

 better be careful that no bird of the air whispers it 

 about beforehand among his neighbours and rivals, 

 who, one and all, will only be too glad if they can 

 bring his plans to naught. 



Time seems to be of no more value to the Cape 

 colonists than it is to the followers of Islam, and 

 "letting things slide" is pretty generally the order of 

 the day. One is rather puzzled at this weak point in 

 otherwise active, energetic characters; and certainly, 

 living as these people do in the splendid air of the 

 Cape exhilarating as champagne, and making all who 

 inhale it feel glad to be alive they cannot, like the 

 limp, supine inhabitants of Eastern lands, plead the 

 excuse of an enervating climate. Much of the dis- 

 comfort in the houses is due to this frightful habit of 

 procrastinating. Whatever is broken is, as often as 

 not, left unmended for an indefinite time ; little repairs, 

 which need but the minimum of time and trouble, but 

 the neglect of which would cause daily annoyance and 

 discomfort to any but these easy-going mortals, are 

 put off from week to week and from month to month. 

 And every one is just as happy and contented, with 



