mantel-shelf. "I had trekked from dawn till eleven o'clock,--a long
trek,--but I wanted to get on; and then had turned the oxen out to
graze, sending the voorlooper to look after them, meaning to inspan
again about six o'clock, and trek with the moon till ten. Then I got
into the waggon and had a good sleep till half-past two or so in the
afternoon, when I rose and cooked some meat, and had my dinner, washing
it down with a pannikin of black coffee; for it was difficult to get
preserved milk in those days. Just as I had finished, and the driver, a
man called Tom, was washing up the things, in comes the young scoundrel
of a voorlooper driving one ox before him.

"'Where are the other oxen?' I asked.

"'Koos!' he said, 'Koos! (chief) the other oxen have gone away. I turned
my back for a minute, and when I looked round again they were all gone
except Kaptein, here, who was rubbing his back against a tree.'

"'You mean that you have been asleep, and let them stray, you villain. I
will rub your back against a stick,' I answered, feeling very angry, for
it was not a pleasant prospect to be stuck up in that fever-trap for a
week or so while we were hunting for the oxen. 'Off you go, and you too,
Tom, and mind you don't come back till you have found them. They have
trekked back along the Middelburg Road, and are a dozen miles off by
now, I'll be bound. Now, no words; go, both of you.'

"Tom, the driver, swore and caught the lad a hearty kick, which he
richly deserved, and then, having tied old Kaptein up to the disselboom
with a riem, they took their assegais and sticks, and started. I would
have gone too, only I knew that somebody must look after the waggon, and
I did not like to leave either of the boys with it at night. I was in a