204 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



instance, has to be brought from Australia ; the poor, 

 dry South African colony being quite unable to produce 

 anything like a sufficient supply for its needs. Then, 

 too, green vegetables are very far from being an every- 

 day item in the Vhenu ; and as for fresh lish, it is a 

 still rarer luxury, indeed throughout all the long, hot 

 summer it is absolutely unobtainable on the farms, and 

 one almost forgets what it is like. Eggs and butter, 

 too, have their long periods, first of excessive and in- 

 creasing scarcity, and then of entire absince from 

 kitchen and table. 



But in the colonies people soon learn to accommodate 

 themselves to circumstances, and contentedly to do 

 without many of the things which in England seemed 

 such necessary adjuncts to daily life. They even become 

 accustomed to a very sad lack of variety in the matter 

 of meat. From one year's end to another merino mut- 

 ton and Angora goat are almost unchangingly the order 

 of the day ; the bill of fare being varied by beef only on 

 those rare occasions, during the very coldest weather, 

 when one of the farmers — having ascertained before- 

 hand that a sufficient number of neighbours are willing 

 to share the meat — is enterprising enough to slaughter 

 an ox. But the difficulties of keeping meat are such 

 that sheep and goats are generally found to be quite 

 large enough ; indeed, in the hot weather, they are very 

 much too large, and one is continually wishing that a 

 diminutive race of mutton-producing quadrupeds — say 

 of the size of Skye terriers — were in existence for the 

 benefit of housekeepers in sultry climates. Fortunately 



