It was about two years before this that Mr Edward Rogers, a gentleman
holding a post of importance in the City of London, had purchased some
land and come out to dwell in Natal. For physician after physician had
been consulted, seaside and health resort visited, but as the time
glided on the verdict of the doctors became more and more apparent as a
true saying, that unless Mrs Rogers was taken to a warmer climate her
days would be few.
Even if she were removed the doctors said that she could not recover;
but still her days might be prolonged. What was more, they strongly
advised such a course in favour of young Richard, who was weak and
delicate to a degree.
"Then you really consider it necessary?" said Mr Rogers to the great
physician who had been called in.
"I do indeed. As I have said, it will prolong your wife's days, and
most probably it will turn that delicate, sickly boy into a strong man."
On being asked further what country he would recommend, he promptly
replied,--
"South Africa."
"Natal is the place," he continued. "There you have the Drakensberg,
and you can choose your own elevation, so as to get a pure, temperate
climate, free from the cold of the mountains and the heat of the
plains."
Mr Rogers was a man of prompt action, for the health of those dear to
him was his first consideration. The consequence was that after rapidly
making his arrangements, and providing the necessaries for his new home,
he took passage to Durban, arrived there in safety with his wife, two
sons, and Dennis; then made his way to Maritzburg; and soon after he had
purchased an extensive tract of land, and a pleasantly situated home,
with garden in full perfection, the owner of which, having made money in
the colony, wished to retire to England.
Here for a time Mrs Rogers had seemed better, and undoubtedly her life
was considerably prolonged. Gardening, farming, and a little hunting
formed the occupations of the father and sons, and for a time all was
happiness in the sunny far-off home. Then the much-dreaded day came,
and they were left to mourn for a tender wife and mother, whose loss was
irreparable.
Richard, who partook greatly of his mother's nature, was, like his
father, completely prostrated by the terrible loss; and though time
somewhat assuaged his grief, he seemed to have gone back in his health,
and lost the way he had made up since he left England, and he had become
so weak and delicate that Mr Rogers had consulted the doctor, who from
time to time visited their far-off home.
"Medicine is of no use, my dear sir," he said frankly. "I can do him no
good. I suppose he sits indoors a good deal and mopes?"
"Exactly."
"Then look here, my dear sir, give him a thorough change. You are not
tied to your farming in any way?"
"Not in the least."
"Then fit up a waggon, take your horses, and have a few months' campaign
in the wilds yonder. You want a change as badly as the boy, and you
will both come back, I'll venture to say, doubled in strength. Why, the
ivory and skins you'll collect will pay your expenses. I wish I had the
chance to go."
It was settled then, and the waggon was being fitted up with ammunition
and stores; horses, guaranteed to be well-salted, had been purchased for
Mr Rogers and his boys. The two young Zulus who had been hanging about
the place for months, making little trips with Dick and Jack, were to
go; and in addition a couple of trustworthy blacks, experienced as
waggon-driver and foreloper, had been engaged; so that in a very few
days they would say good-bye to civilisation for months, and go seek for
health in the far-off wilds.
The boys were delighted, for Mr Rogers proposed that they should aim
for the Zambesi River, and seek some of the seldom-traversed lands,
where game abounded, and where the wonders of nature would be opened to
them as from an unsealed book.
If Dick and Jack were delighted, the two Zulu boys were half mad with
joy. As soon as they knew that they were to be of the party they seemed
to have become frantic, going through the actions of hunting and
spearing wild beasts--knocking down birds with their kiris, which they
threw with unerring aim--pantomimically fighting lions, one of them
roaring and imitating the fierce creature's "oomph, oomph," in a way
that sounded terribly real, while the other threatened him with his
assegai.
Then they were always showing their cleverness as hunters by stalking
people--crawling up to them 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 Legs, for
there was something in the cob's face that he liked, and the little
horse had let him stroke its velvet nose.
"Poor old Dick has taken a fancy to him," he said to himself; "and the
other will do just as well for me."
"Let Dick choose first," he said aloud.
"Very well," said Mr Rogers. "Now then, Dick, which is it to be?
though you can't be wrong, my boy, for there is not a pin to choose
between them, and they are brothers."
"Should you mind if I chose first, Jack?" asked Dick.
"Not a bit," said Jack, stoutly, though his feeling of disappointment
was keen, for he felt now that he would dearly love to have the
white-legged cob.
You may guess then his delight when Dick declared for the black-legged
one.
As soon as he heard the decision Jack had his arm over the white-legged
cob's neck and had given it a hug, the horse looking at him with its
great soft eyes, and uttering a low snort.
"Up with you then, my boys, and have a canter."
"Without a saddle, father?" said Dick, nervously.
Jack was already up.
"Have it saddled if you like, my boy," said Mr Rogers, kindly.
But Dick flushed, gave a spring from the ground, and was on the little
cob's back.
They were both skilled riders, but Dick's illness made him timorous at
times. He, however, fought hard to master his weakness; and when Jack
cried, "Come on, Dick; let's race to the big tree and back," he stuck
his knees into the cob's plump sides and away they went, with the wind
rushing by their ears, and the cobs keeping neck and neck, rounding the
big tree about a mile away on the plain, and then making the dusty earth
rise in clouds as they tore back, and were checked with a touch of the
bridle by the home field.
"Why, Dick, my boy, I would not wish to see a better seat on a horse,"
cried Mr Rogers, patting the cobs in turn. "Jack, you set up your back
like a jockey. Sit more upright, my boy."
"All right, father; I'll try," said Jack, throwing himself right forward
so as to hug his cob's neck. "But I say, father, isn't he lovely? I
felt all the time as if I was a bit of him, or we were all one."
"You looked like it, my boy," said Mr Rogers, smiling in his son's
animated face. "I wish Dick had your confidence, and you a little more
of his style."
"All right, father, we'll try and exchange a bit a-piece," laughed Jack.
"But I can't half believe it, father, that these are to be our own
horses."
"You may believe it, then," said his father. "And now get them to the
stable."
"Oh, I say, Dick, what beauties!" cried Jack. "What shall you call
yours?"
"I don't know yet," replied his brother. "He's very fast. `Swift'
wouldn't be a bad name; and we might call yours `Sure.'"
"Hum! I don't think much of those names. Hold up!" he continued,
examining the hoofs of his brother's nag. "I say, Dick, what fine thick
shoes he has got."
"That's a good suggestion," said Dick, laughing, and looking brighter
than he had seemed for weeks. "Let's call him `Shoes,' and his brother
with the white legs `Stockings.'"
"Shoes and Stockings!" cried Jack; "but those are such stupid names. I
don't know though but what they'll do."
The question was not discussed, for the lads busied themselves in
bedding down their own horses; and for the rest of that, day the stable
seemed to be the most important part of the house.