274 
IN AFRICA 
the line of jam and cheese. That was luncheon, and 
we resolved to do better for dinner. 
iWe told the cook all about Thanksgiving Day 
and what its chief purpose was. We also told him 
of the beautiful significance of the occasion, what 
happy thoughts it inspired, and how much senti¬ 
ment was attached to it. Then we told him to get 
busy. We were in a Thanksgiving mood, being 
grateful that we were not riding around on the 
bowsprit of the rhino, and also because our relatives 
and friends at home were well at last reports, two 
months old. 
True, our guide, who had never been over the 
trail before and who was trying to guess the way 
by instinct, had got us hopelessly becalmed in 
a sea of high grass so that we didn’t know where we 
were. But we knew what we were. We were hun¬ 
gry! 
In the meantime we planned and carried into 
brilliant execution a grouse hunt. There were lots 
of grouse in the country through which we had 
come and all day long coveys of them had been 
whirring away from our advancing outposts. It 
seemed a simple thing to go out and get a few for 
our Thanksgiving dinner, so we gave orders to 
make camp and consecrated the afternoon to a 
grouse quest. 
I’ll never forget what a formidable looking 
party it was. When we had spread out to comb the 
grass by the river side we looked like a skirmish 
line of an army. There were four of us, supported 
