instance, he would not under any circumstances 

 permit mounting on the wrong side a most prepos- 

 terous stand for an old salted shooting horse to take, 

 and the cause of much inconvenience at times. On 

 the mountains it often happened that the path was 

 too narrow and the slope too steep to permit one to 

 mount on the left side, whereas the sharp rise of the 

 ground made it very easy on the right. But Tsetse 

 made no allowance for this, and if the attempt were 

 made he would stand quite still until the rider was off 

 the ground but not yet in the saddle, and then buck 

 continuously until the offender shot overhead and went 

 skidding down the slope. To one encumbered with 

 a rifle in hand, and a kettle or perhaps a couple of legs 

 of buck slung on the saddle, Tsetse's protest was 

 usually irresistible. 



Snowball had no unpractical prejudices : he 

 objected to work that was all. He was a pure white 

 horse, goodness knows how old, with enormously long 

 teeth ; every vestige of grey or other tinge had faded 

 out of him, and his eyes had an aged and resigned look : 

 one warmed to him at sight as a " dear old pet of a 

 Dobbin ! " who ought to be passing his last years 

 grazing contentedly in a meadow and giving bare- 

 back rides to little children. The reproach of his 

 venerable look nearly put me off taking him it seemed 

 such a shame to make the dear old fellow work ; but 

 I hardened my heart and, feeling rather a brute, 

 bought him because he was ' salted ' and would live 

 in the Bushveld : beside that, all other considerations 

 were trivial. Of course he was said to be a shooting 

 305 u 



