CONTENTS. vii 



CHAPTER VIII. 



MKF.RKATS. PAGE 



Meerkats plentiful in the Karroo — Their appearance — Intelligence — 

 Fearlessness — Friendship for dogs — A meerkdt in England — 

 Meerk;it an inveterate thief — An owl in Tangier — Taming full- 

 grown meerkat — Tiny twins— A sad accident — Different char- 

 acters of meerkats — The turkey-herd — Bob and the meerkat— 

 "The Mouse" 157 



CHAPTER IX. 



BOBBY. 

 Bobby's babyhood — Insatiable appetite — Variety of noises made by 

 Bobby — His tameness — Narrow escape from drowning — A 

 warlike head-gear — Bobby the worse for drink — His love of 

 mischief— He disarms his master — Meerkat persecuted by 

 Bobby — Bobby takes to dishonest ways — ^He becomes a prisoner 

 —His clever tricks— Death of Bobby 170 



CHAPTER X. 



OUR SERVANTS. 

 A retrospective vision — Phillis in her domain — Her destructiveness 

 — Her ideas on personal adornment — The woes of a mistress- 

 Eye-service —Abrupt departure of Phillis — Left in the lurch — 

 Nancy and her successors — Cure of sham sickness — The thieCs 

 dose — Our ostrich-herd — A bride purchased with cows — 

 English and natives at the Cape— Character of Zulus and 

 Kaffirs 182 



CHAPTER XI. 



HOW WE FARED. 

 Angora goats —Difficulty of keeping meat — The plague of flies — 

 Rations— Our store — Barter — Fowls — Chasing a dinner — 

 Fowls difficult to rear — Secretary birds as guardians of the 

 poultry-yard — ^Jacob in the Karroo— He comes down in the 

 world— He dies — Antelopes — A springbok hunt — The Queen's 

 birthday in the Karroo — Colonial dances — Our klipspringer — 

 Superstition about hares— Game birds — Paauw — Knorhaan — 

 Namaqua partridges — Porcupines — A short-lived pet — Indian 

 corn — Stamped mealies — Whole-meal bread— Plant used for 

 making bread rise — Substitutes for butter — Priembesjes — A 

 useful tree — Wild honey — The honey-bird— Enemies of bees 

 — Moth in bees' nests — Good coffee — Sour milk 203 



