43 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



mate as well as inanimate, is delivered at its destina- 

 tion on Cape farms. 



After thus paying his footing in South Africa nearly 

 with his life, Toto was thoroughly acclimatized, and 

 passed through several very hot summers on the farm 

 without a day's illness; only showing by increased 

 liveliness his preference for the cooler weather ; being 

 very happy on the occasional really cold days of our 

 short winter, and — like everyone else— cross during a 

 hot wind. He has now accompanied us back to England, 

 where — probably on the strength of being an old 

 ■ traveller who has twice crossed the line — he gives 

 himself great airs, and makes no secret of his contempt 

 for the stay-at-home dogs who have not had his ad- 

 vantages. This involves him in many fights ; and the 

 brother and sister with whom — having no settled home 

 in England — we have occasionally left him, have several 

 times been threatened with summonses for his misdeeds. 

 Toto is now getting on in years — those few years, 

 alas ! which make up the little span of a dog's life — but 

 he is still lively enough ; and the crows at Mogador, 

 where we spent the winter of 1888-89, will long re- 

 member the games they have had with that comical 

 foreign dog, so unlike any of the jackal-like creatures 

 to which they were accustomed. They knew him well, 

 and always seemed to look out for him ; and, as soon 

 as he emerged from the ugly white-washed gateway of 

 the town, and approached their favourite haunt, the 

 dirty rubbish-heaps just outside the walls, they would 

 fly close up to him, challenging him to catch them. 



