Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Fiction
“Black fellow see a crow coming from the sun, and when he came over
there he turned and went down and not get up again a good while. Then
black fellow say, 'I tink.' Presently come flying one more crow from
that other side where the sun is not. Black fellow watch him, and when
he come over there he turn round and go down, too, and not get up a good
while. Then black fellow say, 'I know.'”
“Oh, come along!” cried George.
They hurried on; but when they came to the rising ground and bushes
Jacky put his finger to his lips. “Suppose we catch the black fellows
that have got wings; you make thunder for them?”
He read the answer in George's eye. Then he took George round the back
of the hill and they mounted the crest from the reverse side. They came
over it and there at their very feet lay one of George's best bullocks,
with tongue protruded, breathing his last gasp. A crow of the country
was perched on his ribs, digging his thick beak into a hole he had made
in his ribs, and another was picking out one of his eyes. The birds rose
heavily, clogged and swelling with gore. George's eyes flashed, his gun
went up to his shoulder, and Jacky saw the brown barrel rise slowly for
a moment as it followed the nearest bird wobbling off with broad back
invitingly displayed to the marksman. Bang! the whole charge shivered
the ill-omened glutton, who instantly dropped riddled with shot like a
sieve, while a cloud of dusky feathers rose from him into the air. The
other, hearing the earthly thunder and Jacky's exulting whoop, gave a
sudden whirl with his long wing and shot up into the air at an angle and
made off with great velocity; but the second barrel followed him as he
turned and followed him as he flew down the wind. Bang! out flew two
handfuls of dusky feathers, and glutton No. 2 died in the air, and its
carcass and expanded wings went whirling like a sheet of paper and fell
on the top of a bush at the foot of the hill.
All this delighted the devil-may-care Jacky, but it may be supposed it
was small consolation to George. He went up to the poor beast, who died
even as he looked down on him.
“Drought, Jacky! drought!” said he--“it is Moses, the best of the herd.
Oh, Moses, why couldn't you stay beside me? I'm sure I never let you
want for water, and never would--you left me to find worse friends!”
and so the poor simple fellow moaned over the unfortunate creature,
and gently reproached him for his want of confidence in him that it was
pitiful. Then suddenly turning on Jacky he said gravely, “Moses won't be
the only one, I doubt.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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