full symmetry of a shrub; can ruthlessly diminish the present importance
of certain grand and lofty growths to its true status of flower or
animal. So from a dead uniformity of size he casts forward in the years
to a pleasing variation of shade, of jungle, of open glade, of flowered
vista; and he goes away full of expert admiration for "X.'s bully
garden." With this solid training beneath me I was able on this occasion
to please immensely.

From the house site we descended the slope to where the ostriches and
the cattle and the people were in the late sunlight swarming upward from
the plains pastures below. These people were, to the chief extent,
Wakamba, quite savage, but attracted here by the justness and fair
dealing of the Hills. Some of them farmed on shares with the Hills, the
white men furnishing the land and seed, and the black men the labour;
some of them laboured on wage; some few herded cattle or ostriches; some
were hunters and took the field only when, as now, serious business was
afoot. They had their complete villages, with priests, witch doctors,
and all; and they seemed both contented and fond of the two white men.

As we walked about we learned much of the ostrich business; and in the
course of our ten days' visit we came to a better realization of how
much there is to think of in what appears basically so simple a
proposition.

In the nesting time, then, the Hills went out over the open country,
sometimes for days at a time, armed with long high-power telescopes.
With these fearsome and unwieldy instruments they surveyed the country
inch by inch from the advantage of a kopje. When thus they discovered a
nest, they descended and appropriated the eggs. The latter, hatched at
home in an incubator, formed the nucleus of a flock.