to notice, all the waggons being so much alike and 

 having no regular order at the outspans ; but they 

 did notice it, and at once. They would first get on 

 to the waggon on which the coop had been, and look 

 about in a puzzled lost kind of way ; then walk all 

 over the load apparently searching for it, with heads 

 cocked this way and that, as if a great big coop was 

 a thing that might have been mislaid somewhere ; 

 then one after another would jerk out short cackles 

 of protest, indignation and astonishment, and generally 

 make no end of a fuss. It was only when old Pezulu 

 led the way and perched on the coop itself and crowed 

 and called to them that they would get up on to the 

 other waggon. 



Pezulu got his name by accident in fact, by a 

 misunderstanding. It is a Zulu word meaning ' up ' 

 or ' on top,' and when the fowls first joined the 

 waggons and were allowed to wander about at the 

 outspan places, the boys would drive them up when it 

 was time to trek again by cracking their big whips 

 and shouting " Pezulu." In a few days no driving or 

 whip-cracking was necessary; one of the boys would 

 shout " Pezulu " three or four times, and they would 

 all come in and one by one fly and scramble up to the 

 coop. One day, after we had got a new lot of hens, 

 a stranger happened to witness the performance. 

 Old Pezulu was the only one who knew what was 

 meant, and being a terribly fussy nervous old gentle- 

 man, came tearing out of the bush making a lot of 

 noise, and scrambled hastily on to the waggon. The 

 stranger, hearing the boys call " Pezulu " and seeing 



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