I had ridden out one day to the outpost, where a troop of young cattle were running, when the horse rode into a covey of red-wing partridges, a brace of which I accounted for by a right and left. Picking up the birds, and feeling rather proud of the shot, I continued on to Uncle Pike's to crow over the matter. The old man was seated outside the door `braiding' a thong of forslag or whip-lash. "Hitch the reins over the pole. Ef the shed was ready I'd ask yer to stable the hoss, but there's a powerful heap o' work yet to finish it off nice an' shipshape--me being one o' those who like to see a job well done. None o' yer rough and ready sheds for me, with a hole in the roof after the fust rain. A plump brace o' birds--you got 'em up by the Round Kopje." "Yes, Uncle; a right and left from the saddle. Good shooting, eh!" "Fair to middling, sonny--fair to middling--but with a handful o' shot an' a light gun what can yer expect but to hit. Now, ef you'd bagged 'em with one ball outer an ole muzzle-loader, why I'd up an' admit it was praisable." "Why Uncle, where's the man who would knock over two birds with a ball? It couldn't be done." "Is that so? Well, now yer s'prise me." "You're not going to tell me you have seen that done!" "Something better. That's small potatoes." He rose up, went indoors, and returned with an ancient single muzzle-loader, the stock bound round with snake skin. "Jes' yer handle that wepin." I handled it, and returned it without a word. It was ill-balanced, and came up awkwardly to the shoulder. "That wepin saved my life." "In the war?" "In the big drought. You remember the time. The country was that dry, you could hear the grass crackle like tinder when the wind moved, an' every breath stirred up columns of sand which went cavorting over the veld round and round, their tops bending over to each other an' the bottoms stirring up everything movable, and the whole length of the funells dotted about with snakes, an' lizards, an' bits of wood. Why, I see one o' em whip up a dead sheep, an' shed the wool off o' the carcase as it went twisting round an' round." "And the gun?"