"Rebellion was useless. But we knew of a vast land that stretched away to the north of us. To be sure, it was filled with savages and ferocious wild animals, but even that was preferable to British tyranny. There were about six thousand of us in all who left our fertile coastland farms and trekked forth into the unknown wilderness in search of new homes where we could live in peace. One by one, we loaded up our huge ox-drawn wagons, which were to serve as home, fort and wagon for many a long day on our journey. Inside these great covered wagons--'rolling-houses'--the Zulus called them--the women and children were seated. Outside--tramping alongside as a guard--carrying their well-oiled, long-barreled guns--were the men. The older children helped to drive and round up the great flocks and herds which accompanied our migration. Well do I remember the cries of a small, bare-foot boy of ten, running at the head of a long team of tired oxen, which now and then quickened its pace at the touch of his sjambok. Who do you suppose that bit of a boy was, Koos?" "You, Grandfather?" "No, no, Koos. That little fellow was only about half my size then, but, since those hard days, he has four times ruled our glorious Transvaal as its President, and often fought with us all for our country's freedom." "Oh, I know! President Kruger?" "Yes, Koos, that ragged little boy was none other than Paul Stephanus Kruger." "Go on, Grandfather. Did the Voor-trekkers come straight to the Transvaal with all their covered ox-wagons and everything?" "No, Koos. There were the great desolate stretches of the 'Karroo' to be crossed, with such dangers and hardships by day and night that many of our oxen soon trekked their last trek. The loud gun-like crack of the long ox-whips, as they whirled over the poor oxen's heads--and fell with a savage blow on their brown hides--to the driver's yell: 'TREK'!--is still in my ears. Those whips, made from the hide of giraffes, were usually eighteen or twenty feet long. "This great 'Exodus'--or 'the Boer Mayflower trip'--as your cousins in New York City once described it--was full of all kinds of experiences and suffering. Vast herds of wild elephants impeded our way. Flocks of ostriches, with herds of zebras, antelopes, gnus and quaggas, covered the plains in such vast numbers that at times the whole landscape was obscured. Poisonous snakes glided from among the bushes in front of us--and there was scarcely a rocky kloof or kopje but sheltered a ravenous lion or leopard." "Oh, Grandfather! and were your dangers over when you'd crossed that terrible Karroo?"