"A locust!" cried Abe scornfully; "that's no locust. It's calling the sperits of the woods together, and the ghostses of animiles--that's what; and that's why all the other noises is hushed." CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. ABE PIKE AND THE KAFFIR WAR. "Were you ever in the wars, Abe?" I asked the old chap on one of my off-days, when I had called on him to go out after rhea-buck. "Were I ever in the wars? Did I ever grow pumpkins? There's some fellows go through life asking questions about things that's as plain as plain--why, blow me, I've known 'em ask ef 'twdn't be a fine day when there's bin no rain for a month and not a stir o' wind." "So you have been in the wars?" Grunt. "I suppose," said I, unmoved by Abe's indignation, "you never got into a fix--always kept with the rear column?" "What, me! Jes' you look here," and cocking up his chin, he showed a long scar under his beard. "Assegai!" he said. "Must have been a close shave!" "'Twarnt no barber held that wepin I tell you, sonny. No, sir! I jes' seed the whites of his eyes and the gleam of his teeth, and whizz!-- whough!--the assegai darted like a serpent's tongue. He was painted red, he were!" "Who?" "The Kaffir, you blind eyed calabash. It was in Blaauw krantz in '45. You don't remember those days, 'cos you weren't born, but Blaauw krantz were jes' where it is now, and the red Kaffirs had suddenly got back their old idea they could drive us into the sea. Wonderful how sot they are on getting us into the salt water; and that time they was partikler keen on making us take to the sea without so much as a plank. Of course we knew there was something in the wind. When Kaffirs mean to fight they don't fire off blank cartridges in the papers; they jes' keep dark, uncommon dark an' sulky, but for all that they can't keep down the human nature that's in 'em, and they have a way of giving you the shoulder when you order them about that means mischief. When a Kaffir clicks at you with his tongue you don't want him to tell you in plain words that he's _quaai_ and would like to belt you over the head. Well, I tell you, you dursen't order a boy to step a yard but he'd click, an' some of the chaps with families took the hint and shifted into Grahamstown; but, lor' bless yer, the Government didn't take any notice. Oh no; the Government knew the Kaffirs and it knew the whites, and it believed in the Kaffirs. Look here, sonny, Government's a ass--alus was a ass, and alus will be a ass. Alus so darned cock-sure, and so blamed ignorant that any Kaffir chief could best it every time. You know, sonny, the chief he would jes' come along--simple an' humble--and pitch in a yarn about how he loved the `great white ox,' how he wished to herd his cattle in peace, and how thankful he'd be if the great white chief would send him a little white chief to keep the wicked white men from his kraals. All he wanted was peace--since he had listened to the words of wisdom from the Government.