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IV. ANOTHER HUNTING LESSON

It was still dark, with a faint promise of saffron in the east, when I felt a hand on my shoulder and heard Rocky's voice saying, "Comin' along, sonny?"

Rocky was different that day. He showed me things; reading the open book of nature that I could not understand. He pointed out the spoors going to and from the drinking-place, and named the various animals; showed me one more deeply indented than the rest and, murmuring "Scared, I guess," pointed to where it had dashed off out of the regular track; picked out the big splayed pad of the hyena sneaking round under cover.

A little later we watched a little red steinbuck get up from his form, shake the dew from his coat, stretch himself, and then pick his way daintily through the wet grass, nibbling here and there as he went. Rocky did not fire; he wanted something better.

After the sun had risen, flooding the whole country with golden light, and, while the dew lasted, making it glisten like a bespangled transformation scene, we came on a patch of old long grass and, parted by some twenty yards, walked through it abreast. There was a wild rush from under my feet, a yellowish body dashed through the grass, and I got out in time to see a rietbuck ram cantering away. Then Rocky, beside me, gave a shrill whistle; the buck stopped, side on, looked back at us, and Rocky dropped it where it stood. Instantly following the shot there was another rush on our left, and before the second rietbuck had gone thirty yards Rocky toppled it over in its tracks. From the whistle to the second shot it was all done in

about ten seconds. To me it looked like magic. I could only gasp.

We cleaned the bucks, and hid them in a bush. There was meat enough for the camp then, and I thought we would return. at once for the boys to carry it; but Rocky, after a moment's glance round, shouldered his rifle and moved on again. I followed, asking no questions.

We went on again, and a quarter of an hour later, it may be, Rocky stopped, subsided to a sitting position, beckoned to me, and pointed with his levelled rifle in front. It was a couple of minutes before he could get me to see the steinbuck standing in the shade of a thorn tree. I would never have seen it but for his whisper to look for something moving: that gave it to me; I saw the movement of the head as it cropped.

"High: right!" was Rocky's comment, as the bullet ripped the bark off a tree and the startled steinbuck raced away. In the excitement I had forgotten his advice already!

But there was no time to feel sick and disgusted; the buck, puzzled by the report on one side and the smash on the tree on the other, half circled us and stopped to look back. Rocky laid his hand on my shoulder:

"Take your time, sonny!" he said, "Aim low; an' don't pull! Squeeze!" And at last I got it.

We had our breakfast there the liver roasted on the coals, and a couple of "dough-boys," with the unexpected addition of a bottle of cold tea, weak and unsweetened, produced from Rocky's knapsack! We stayed there a couple of hours, and that is the only time he really opened out. I understood then at last that of his deliberate kindliness he had come out

that morning meaning to make a happy day of it for a youngster; and he did it.

When I woke up next morning Rocky was fitting the packs on his donkeys. I was a little puzzled, wondering at first if he was testing the saddles, for he had said nothing about moving on; but when he joined us at breakfast the donkeys stood packed, ready to start. Then Robbie asked:

"Going to make a move, Rocky?"

"Yes! Reckon I'll git!" he answered quietly.

I ate in silence, thinking of what he was to face: many hundred of miles- perhaps a thousand or two; many, many months may be a year or two; wild country, wild tribes, and wild beasts; floods and fever; accident, hunger, and disease; and alone!

When we had finished breakfast he rinsed out his beaker and hung it on one of the packs, slung his rifle over his shoulder, and, picking up his long walking-stick, tapped the donkeys lightly to turn them into the Kaffir footpath that led away north. They jogged on into place in single file.

Rocky paused a second before following, turned one brief grave glance on us, and said:

"Well. So long!"

He never came back!

SIR PERCY FITZPATRICK. (From "Jock of the Bushveld")

THE IMPOSSIBLE

"BUT what can we do if it doesn't rain?" asked Hadly Curtiss. Erskine rolled over, kicked the fire with his booted foot, and yawned.

"Oh, I suppose we'd walk and carry the canoe," he answered. "It's only forty miles."

"Only forty miles! You know that's impossible! Over these rocks? And with our dunnage? We could fly as easily!"

"O you boy! When will you grow up? You must learn that nothing is impossible!"

Hadly frowned; he did not like to be called a "boy."

"But it is impossible," he said, doggedly, "and you know it!" Hadly rose from his blankets, and began to prepare the simple evening meal.

Conditions were discouraging. The two had come many miles into the northern woods. After much hard study in his medical course, Hadly Curtiss needed a long outing; but only because Erskine was willing to go had Mr. Curtiss permitted his son to take the journey. Erskine had been tutor and companion to the boy for three years, and Mr. Curtiss had learned to trust him. But Mr. Curtiss would have been an anxious father could he have seen his son and the tutor now. The summer had been unusually dry; by September the streams up which they had paddled had almost completely dried up. The two were trapped in the depths of the wilderness, forty miles from the river, and sixty miles farther from the outposts of civilization.

microscope, Smith discovered that he knew three times as much about laces as he had ever expected to know. Out of his savings he bought a powerful hand magnifying glass which he carried with him daily to the store. By degrees he became able to demonstrate to customers the relative values of the different laces. The department manager looked on approvingly and added all the information in his power.

At the end of the second year Brown's salary remained six dollars. Smith's pay had been increased to ten. "Favoritism!" snapped Brown. "I wonder, Fred, why the I work as hard as you do." manager can't see anything in me. "Not in the evenings," was the quiet answer. "I spend most of my evening time studying the laces. Why don't you do the same? You're a good fellow, and willing. Come up to the house with me to-night, and after supper I'll show you some of the things I've been studying."

"Can't do it," replied Brown; "got an engagement."

There was an evening high school course in chemistry. Deciding that he knew as much as he was able to learn about the fibers of every kind of lace sold in the store, Smith decided to take up chemistry in the hope that he could learn something more about laces. The course was elementary, but he applied himself with so much diligence that the professor soon began to take an especial interest in him. Then the young man explained what he wanted most to learn.

"Stop a few minutes every evening after the class is dismissed," advised the professor. "Bring samples of your laces with you, and I'll see what help I can give you."

All through the winter, Smith toiled away at chemistry. He learned how to make tests of the lace fibers that were im

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