Off to the Wilds | Page 6

through the long grass, taking advantage
of every irregularity of the ground or shrub to get nearer, and grinning
with delight on seeing the surprise and fear of the person stalked.
For it was only during the past year that they had been so much
amongst the settlers in Natal. Their early days had been spent with their
tribe in the north, their father being a redoubtable chief; but he had
given great offence to the king, and had been compelled to fly for his

life, finding refuge amongst the English, with his boys.
Mention has been made of well-salted horses, which to a sailor would
immediately suggest commissariat beef in pickle in good-sized tubs;
but pray don't imagine that the satisfactory condiment, salt, has
anything to do with a salted horse in South Africa. A salted horse is one
that is seasoned to the climate by having passed through the deadly
horse sickness, a complaint so bad and peculiar to the land that very
few of the horses seized with it recover. When one does recover he is
called a salted--that is, seasoned--horse, and his value is quadrupled.
Mr Rogers had spared no expense in getting together good cattle. His
team of little Zulu oxen were the perfection of health and strength, and
far more docile than is generally the case with these animals; though
even these, in spite of their good behaviour, were exceedingly fond of
tickling each other's ribs with their long horns, and saving the driver
trouble, for the pair nearest the waggon would stir up the pair in front
of them, and as these could only retaliate on their aggressors with their
tails, they took their revenge on the pair in front; these again punished
the pair in front; and so on, and on, to the leading oxen, the result of the
many applications being a great increase of speed.
Then the horses were excellent. Mr Rogers had three for his own riding;
a big bay, a dark grey, and a soft mouse-coloured chestnut, more
famous for speed than beauty, and with a nasty habit of turning round
and smiling, as if he meant to bite, when he was mounted.
Dick was clever at names, and he immediately suggested "Smiler" as
an appropriate name for the chestnut. The dark grey he called
"Toothpick," because of his habit of rubbing his teeth on the sharp
points of the fence; while he called the big bony bay the "Nipper," from
his being so fond of grazing on, and taking nips from, the manes and
tails of his companions, when he could get a chance.
Mr Rogers provided three horses for his own riding, but it was with the
idea of giving either of his sons an extra mount when necessary, for it
was certain that there would be times when the arch-necked swift little
cobs purchased for his boys would want a rest.

It was a stroke of good fortune to get such a pair, and the boys were in
ecstasies when they were brought up from Maritzburg, for a handsomer
pair of little horses it would have been hard to find. They were both of
that rich dark reddish roan, and wonderfully alike, the differences being
in their legs; one being nearly black in this important part of its person,
the other having what most purchasers would call the blemish of four
white legs--it being a canon amongst the wise in horseflesh that a dark
or black-legged horse has better sinews and lasting powers. In this case,
however, the theory was wrong, for white legs was if anything the
stronger of the two.
The lads then were delighted, and this became increased when they
found the little nags quite ready to make friends, and willing to eat
apples, bread, or as much sugar out of their hands as they would give.
"That's right, my boys," said Mr Rogers, who found his sons making
friends in this way with the new arrivals; "always feed your horses
yourselves, and treat them well. Pet them as much as you like, and win
their confidence by your kindness. Never ill-use your horse; one act of
ill-treatment and you make him afraid of you, and then perhaps some
day, when in an emergency and you want to catch your horse, he may
gallop away. Go on like that, and those cobs will follow you about like
dogs. But you must each keep to his own horse. Which one would you
like, Jack?"
"Oh! the--"
Jack stopped, and glanced at his brother, whose face was slightly
flushed.
Dick was weak and delicate, while Jack was the perfection of boyish
vigour; and feeling that his brother did not enjoy life as he did himself,
he stopped short just as he was going to say White