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"Papa! do not grieve," said a soft voice; "we are all alive yet, we are here by your side;" and with the words a little white hand was laid upon his shoulder. It was the hand of the beautiful Truey. It seemed as if an angel had smiled upon him. He lifted the child in his arms, and in a paroxysm of fondness pressed her to his heart. That heart felt relieved.
While Swartboy, assisted by Hendrik, was catching up the twelve yoke-oxen, and attaching them to the disselboom and trektow of the wagon, the "baas" himself, aided by Hans, Totty, and also by Trüey and little Jan, was loading up the furniture and implements. This was not a difficult task.
Now the bird which had so opportunely appeared between Jan and Truey, and had no doubt saved one or the other, or both, from the deadly bite of the spuugh-slang, was a serpent-eater, one that had been tamed, and that made its home among the branches of the great nwana-tree.
Her screams, therefore, and the wild gestures that accompanied them, only caused him to run the faster; and as his eyes were bent anxiously on Truey, there was not the slightest hope that he would perceive the serpent until he had either trodden upon it, or felt its fatal bite. Truey uttered one last cry of warning, pronouncing at the same time the words: "O, brother! back! The snake! the snake!"
Little Trüey ran into the inner room and brought out an immense volume bound in gemsbok skin, with a couple of brass clasps upon it to keep it closed.
As young Hendrik and Swartboy rode off for the horses and cattle, Hans, leaving his work in the garden, proceeded to collect the sheep and drive them home. These browsed in a different direction; but, as they were near, he went afoot, taking little Jan along with him. Trüey having tied her pet to a post, had gone inside the house to help Totty in preparing the supper.
You will suppose that such a wild concert must have put the camp in a state of great alarm. Not a bit of it. Nobody was frightened the least not even innocent little Truey, nor the diminutive Jan. Had they been strangers to these sounds, no doubt they would have been more than frightened.
It was the approach of the antelope that had interrupted the retreat of the serpent! Trüey, on first discovering the snake, had uttered a cry of alarm. This cry had summoned her pet that had lingered behind browsing upon the grass and it was now bounding forward, with its white tail erect, and its large brown eyes glistening with an expression of inquiry.
They were large animals of a yellow brown colour, with shaggy manes, and long tufts of hair growing out of their breasts, and hanging down between their fore-legs. They were as big as ponies, said Jan, and very like ponies. They curvetted and capered about just as ponies do sometimes. Truey thought that they looked more like lions!
It would be impossible for him to leap aside or over the reptile, as the antelope had done; for even then Truey had noticed that the cobra had darted its long neck several feet upwards. It would be certain to reach little Jan, perhaps, coil itself around him. Jan would be lost! For some moments Truey was speechless. Terror had robbed her of the power of speech.
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