76 
MYOLA 
CHAP. 
our minds to do the best we could, and camp until the 
water went down. 
No shelter, no fire, no food ; it was not a pleasant 
outlook, and I felt that I alone was responsible for 
the weather. Mrs. S., I am sure, thought so too. She 
had maintained a stolid silence up to the present time, 
but I felt that something was brewing for me. She 
gave vent at last to her pent-up feelings, and burst 
into floods of tears over our “ cruel surroundings ” ; 
she was more angry still when I had an uncontrollable 
fit of laughter : I felt that it was absolutely brutal of 
me, but the situation was so comical as we sat under 
that buggy, and the expression of her face was a study. 
I gave her both the seats to sit upon, and tried to 
make amends by wrapping my waterproof round her 
(there were still some dry places left in it). I gave 
her, too, the remainder of my goat-milk ; it was partly 
sour, but she didn’t seem to notice that, and the atten- 
tion appeared to console her. I even took the deepest 
interest in the dire tales of woe she told me of terrible 
things that had happened to various members of her 
family who had been overtaken by misfortunes similar 
to ours. 
Then Jackey got on one of the horses and rode some 
distance up the river to look at another crossing. He 
came back after a short absence and told us that a party 
of natives was camped about a mile away. This sug- 
gested food and shelter to Mrs. S.’s practical mind, and 
anything was better than sitting still in our damp 
clothes. I was bush-woman enough to know this, so 
we held a council of war and decided to risk the 
reception we might get from the natives, and went to 
their camp. We were greeted by the howling and 
barking of their dogs. “ Both mongrel, puppy, whelp, 
and hound, And cur of low degree ” were there. They 
