was sleeping like a babe. He, gaunt and spare 

 6 ft. 2 he must have stood weather-beaten and old, 

 with the long solitary trip before him and sixty odd 

 years of life behind, he slept when he laid his head 

 down, and was wide awake and rested when he raised 

 it. He, who had been through it all, slept; but I, 

 who had only listened, was haunted, bewitched, 

 possessed, by racing thoughts ; and all on account of 

 four words, and the way he said them, " It was my 

 dawg." 



It was still dark, with a faint promise of saffron in 

 the East, when I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard 

 Rocky's voice saying, " Comin' along, Sonny ? " 



One of the drivers raised his head to look at us as 

 we passed, and then called to his voorlooper to turn 

 the cattle loose to graze, and dropped back to sleep. 

 We left them so and sallied out into the pure clear 

 morning while all the world was still, while the air, 

 cold and subtly stimulating, put a spring into the 

 step and an extra beat or two into the pulse, fairly 

 rinsing lungs and eyes and brain. 



What is there to tell of that day ? Why ! nothing, 

 really nothing, except that it was a happy day a day 

 of little things that all went well, and so it came to 

 look like the birthday of the hunting. What did 

 it matter to me that we were soaked through in ten 

 minutes ? for the dew weighed down the heavy- 

 topped grass with clusters of crystal drops that looked 

 like diamond sprays. It was all too beautiful for 

 words : and so it should be in the spring-time of 

 youth. 



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