Having ministered to the wants of the antelopes, I tried to interest
the boys in my discovery of the block of talc, but just then their
mother summoned us to dinner.
The principal dish in this meal consisted of the bears' paws--most
savoury-smelling delicacies, so tempting that their close resemblance
to human hands, and even the roguish `Fee-fo-fum' from Jack, did not
prevent a single member of the family from enjoying them most heartily.
Supper over, we lit our watch-fire, retired to our tent and slept
soundly.
We had been working very diligently; the bears' meat was smoked, the
fat melted down and stored, and a large supply of bamboos collected.
But I wished to make yet another excursion, and at early dawn I aroused
the boys.
Fritz mounted the mule, I rode Lightfoot, Jack and Franz took their
usual steeds and, with the two dogs, we galloped off--first to visit
the euphorbia to collect the gum, and then to discover whether the
ostrich had deserted her eggs in the sand.
Ernest watched us depart without the slightest look or sigh of regret,
and returned to the tent to assist his mother and study his books.
Our steeds carried us down the Green Valley at a rapid rate, and we
followed the direction we had pursued on our former expedition. We soon
reached Turtle Marsh, and then, filling our water-flasks, we arrived at
the rising ground where Fritz discovered the mounted Arabs.
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