Therefore the title is a misnomer or I've put the wrong yarn to the right title, or the wrong title to the right yarn, but anyhow, failure or not, you've the yarn, so digest it and make the best of it, as we did the potatoes; and I assure you there was no failure about them. And as now this finale has bothered me as much as those confounded gullies did, I must confess that after partaking of perhaps too many of those spuds, and very good they were, I broke out into poetry in honour of my glorious horse. I will only give you one verse, so don't run away: "A man may love a bow-wow, or a man may love a girl, He may prate on points of pedigree, or rave about a curl, But a trooper can love both of these, in a tiny way of course, For most of his affections are lavished on his horse. Oh, some men love a steamer yacht, and some love jaunting cars, And I hear that in a big balloon men soon will visit Mars; But here's a toast you all must drink, refuse it if you can, A health to the noble warhorse, God's greatest gift to man." Don't throw pannikins at me, but blame potatoes and ration rum taken on an empty stomach. Good-night. CHAPTER VII SOME MIRACULOUS ESCAPES I HAVE KNOWN "There's a sweet little cherub who sits up aloft And looks after the life of poor Jack." DIBDIN. By miraculous escapes I mean those escapes from death that have been entirely engineered by the Power above, who has preserved the life of human beings when they were utterly helpless, and who, for some inscrutable reason, saves one life and allows others to be destroyed. The yarns I am now going to spin will illustrate, I think, what I have written above. About midnight on 6th September 1868 a New Zealand Field Force, under the command of Colonel McDonnell, consisting of 200 white men and 70 friendly natives, left camp, crossed the deep, rapid and icy-cold River Waingongora, and started to attack Tetokowaru in his stronghold Te-ngutu-o-te-manu. I am not going to inflict on you the miserable yarn of the unfortunate fight, as I have written it elsewhere; suffice it to say that the great majority of the 200 white men were untrained new chums, and that over 40 of them bolted at the first volley. The remainder stood their ground, although they refused to extend; so we lost one-third of our number, killed and wounded, in less than a quarter of an hour, and had to retreat, leaving our dead and many wounded men behind us. So that you can understand the position of affairs, I may tell you that Colonel McDonnell, retaining the command of 100 of the white men, had sent the remaining 100 under Major Von Tempsky, to act on the right of his own party, and, as soon as he saw that nothing but a retreat could save the remainder of his force, he sent Captain McDonnell, his brother, to Von Tempsky with orders for the Major to retreat at once, and join up with his own party.