The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1888-02-03

away this week toward Delagoa to shoot buff
falo. Shall take you with me or send you
down to Durham
"'Oh, take me with you, father begged
Harry, Il want to kill a buffalo
"'And supposing that the buffalo kills you
insteadr l asked.
"'Oh, never mind he said, gayly, there
are lots more where came from
~ rebuked him for his fiippancy, but in
the end l consented to take him"
CHAPTER H.
Something over fortnight had passed
since the night when lost half.a sovereign
and found 81, ,250 in looking for it, and in
stead of that horrid hole, for which, after all,
Ell Dorado was scarcely mi1iomer q very
different scene stretched away before us clad
in the silver robe of the moonlight. We were
camped-Harry and l, two Kafirs, a Scotch
cart and SIX oxen--on the swelling side of O
great wave of bush clad land. Just where
we made our camp, however, the bush was
very sparse and only grew about in clumps
while here and there were single Fat topped
mimosa trees To our right little stream,
which had cut deep channel for itself in the
bosom of the slope, flowed. musically ON be-
tween banks green with maidenhaif, wild
asparagus and many beautiful grasses. The
bed rock here was red granite, and in the
COZ of centuries of patient washing the
wat,.' had followed out some Of the huge
slabs in its path into great troughs and cups,
and these we used for bathing places No
Roman lady, with her baths of porphyry or
alabaster, could have had more delicious
spot to lave herself than we had within fifty
yards of our skerm or rough inclosure Of
mimosa thorn that we had dragged together
round our cart to protect us from the attacks
of lions. There were several of these about,
as knew from their spoor, though we had
neither heard nor seen them.
at was little nook where the eddy Of the
stream had washed away mass of soil, and
on the edge of it there grew a most beautiful
old tlinosa thorn. Beneath the thorn was a
large smooth slab of granite fringed all
round with maidenhair and other ferns, that
sloped gently down to pool of the clearest
sparkling water, which lay in a bowl Of
granite about ten feet wide by five feet deep
in the center Here to this slab we went
every morning to bathe, and that delightful
bath is among the most pleasant of my hunt
ing "reminiscences, as it is also for reasons
that will presently appear among the most
painful
at was lovely night and Harry and l
sat there to the windward Of the fire, at
which the two Kafirs were busiy employed
in cooking some impala steaks off buck
which Harry, to his great joy, had shot that
morning, and were as perfectly contented
with ourselves and the world at large as two
people could possibly be. The light was beau
tiful it would require somebody with more
words on the tip of their tongue than l have
to properly describe the chastened majesty Of
those moonlit wilds. Away forever and for
ever, away to the mysterious north, rolled the
great bush ocean over which the silence
brooded. There beneath us a mile or more
TO the right, ran the wide Oliphant and
mirror like flashed back the moon, whose
silver spears were shivered on its breast and
then tossed in twisted lines of light far
and wide about the mountains and the plain.
Down upon the river banks grew great tim
ber trees that, through the stiffness, pointed
solemnly to heaven, and the beauty of the
night lay upon them like cloud. Every.
where was silence-silence in the starred
depths, silence on the fair bosom of the Sleep
ing earth. Now, if ever, great thoughts
IN yht rise in a mans mind, and for space
he might loose his ltteness in the sense that
he partook of the pure immensity about him.
Almost might he seem to see the spirit of the
heavens, girdled round with stars, passing
down in the dead quiet to look, now that the
night had covered up her sins, upon the sleep
ing face of his lost bride, the earth. Almost
might ne near che echoes Of angelic voices, as
the spirits poised ON bent and rushing pinions
swept onward from universe to universe;
and distinguish the white fingers of the wind
playing in the tresses of the trees.
"Hark! what was that'
"From far away down by the river there
comes mighty rolling sound then another
and another. 1t is the lion seeking his meat.
81 saw Harry shiver and turn little pale.
| He was plucky boy enough, but the roar OF
| a lion for the first time in the solemn bush
veldt at night is apt to shake the nerves of
any lad.
"'Lions, my boy said; they are hunt
| ing down by the river there; but l don't
think that you need make yourself uneasy.
| We have been here three nights now and il
they were going to pay us a visit l should
| think that they would have done SO before
this. However, we will make up the fire.
| "Here, Pharaoh, do you and Jim-Jim get
some more wood before we go to sleep, else
the cats will be purring round before morn
ing
pharaoh, a great brawny Swat, who
had been working for me at Pilgrims Rest
laughed, rose and stretched himself, and
then calling to Jim-Jim to bring the az
and a REIN, started off in the moonlight
toward clump of sugar bush, where we cut
|
fine fellow in his way, was Pharaoh, and
think that he had been named Pharaoh be
cause he had an Egyptian cast of counter
ance and royal sort of swagger about him
But his way was a somewhat peculiar way
on account of the uncertainty OF his temper
and very few people could get on with him
also, if he could get it, he would drink lik
fish, and when he drank he became shock
ingly bloodthirsty. These were his bat
points; his good ones were that, like mos
people of the Zulu blood, he became exceed
ingly attached to one if he took to you at all
he was hard working and intelligent man
and about as dare devil and plucky fellow
at a pinch as l have ever had to do with
He was about five and thirty years Of age o
SO, but not 'keshla' or ringed man. / be
lievo that he got into trouble in some way il
Swaziland, and the authorities of his trib
would not allow him to assume the ring, am
that is why he came to work at the gol
fields. The other man, or rather lad Jim-Jim
was Mapoch Kafir, or Knobnose, and eve
in the light of subsequent events l fear tina
l cannot speak very well of him. He was a
idle and careless young rascal, and only tina
very morning had to tell Pharaoh to Civ
him a beating for letting the oxen stray
which he did with the greatest gusto, a
though he was, by the way, very fond G
Jim-Jim Indeed, | saw him consoling jim
jim afterwards with pinch of snuff froI
his own ear box whilst he explained to hiI
that the next time it came in the way of dut
to fog him he meant to thrash him with I'll
other hand, so as to cross the old cuts an
make "A pretty pattern ON his back
"Well, off they went, though Jim-Jim di
not at AN like leaving the camp at that hou
even when the moonlight was so bright, an
in due course returned safely enough with
great bundle OF wood, laughed at Jim-Jii
and asked him if he had seen anything, an
L L L.