A Breath from the Veldt 



17 



attractions and amusements of its own. There is a lawn-tennis club, where 

 any stranger is sure of a hospitable reception ; there are lovely gardens, where 

 plenty of shade may be found ; and as to fruit, it is at once excellent and 

 abundant. For the small charge of sixpence you can go into any of the fruit 

 gardens, and in one short hour lay the foundations of a choleraic attack that 

 will take six months to cure. Figs, peaches,^ pears, and grapes grow in a 

 profusion that laughs to scorn the feeble efforts of man to consume the supply. 

 Acres of grapes, hedges of quinces, and gardens of peaches annually go to rot 



A CHEETAH CUB 



and waste without a hand to gather them. This is no exaggeration, but a 

 positive fact, though the people on the spot do not care to own it. 



Young man setting forth into the world with a few hundreds in your 

 pocket, don't go to Florida to grow oranges ; there are too many there already. 

 Don't go to California ; the market is alike glutted. Don't go to British 

 Columbia unless you've already been there, or have secured a nice snug berth 

 before you started ; and, above all, don't go to Mashonaland to mine or farm, 



1 Mr. Peter Flower and I, whilst walking in one of these gardens one day, came upon a peach tree split 

 completely in half by the sheer weight of fruit on its branches. The trunk divided in a fork about six feet 

 from the ground, and had been unable to bear the strain on its lateral branches, which had fallen to the 

 earth. 



D 



