NEW YEAR ON THE VELDT 233 



baboons on tbe side racks of a light buck-waggon, which 

 was drawn by a span of ten fast and good-looking 

 Argentine mules. 



" Get that old blunderbuss of yours and jump aboard. 



We're off to de V 'sfarm for a couple of days' shooting. 



Boss up, old chap, we can't wait more than a couple of 



minutes," cried B , as though it were quite the usual 



thing for a man to start away on a shooting trip at a 

 moment's notice habited in airy night garments of the 

 thinnest of China silk. A couple of days' shooting was 

 not to be missed, however, and having dressed with 

 almost as much alacrity as a quick-change artiste, I put 

 my old 12-bore gun into a much-worn leg-o' -mutton 

 case, filled a capacious magazine with cartridges ; ex- 

 plained to my Basuto boy-of-all-work the difference 

 between meum et tuum (I was anxious regarding the fate 

 of my small stock of " medical comforts " during my 

 absence), clambered into the waggon, and away started 

 our cavalcade at a smart trot : the yelling of the noisy 

 but skilful Kaffir driver and the loud pistol-like crack of 

 the enormously long raw-hide whip making more dis- 

 turbance than a whole troop of Cossacks. 



We had a trek of several hours before us, and leaving 

 Johannesburg and its dust and turmoil, its mines and 

 head-gears, behind us, we set our course eastward along 

 what was formerly known, I believe, as the Natal 

 coach road. We noticed a fine string of racehorses at 

 their morning work on the veldt at Rosettenville, and 

 having made a brief halt at the hotel for a glass of 



