The cruel hawk had seized the swallow which I loved, and borne it away to devour it in its eyrie, and it was the crow that saved it.

Well, the things that happened among birds might happen among men, who also prey upon each other, and--but I could not bear the thought.
"Take the mule, Sihamba," I said; "I will answer for it to the Baas.

As for the two cows, they can run with the other cattle till your return." "I thank you, Mother of Swallow," she answered, and turned to go, when I stopped her and asked: "Have you heard anything that makes you afraid, Sihamba ?" "I have heard nothing," she replied, "still I am afraid." "Then you are a fool for your pains, to be afraid of nothing," I answered roughly; "but watch well, Sihamba." "Fear not, I will watch till my knees are loosened and my eyes grow hollow." Then she went away, and that was the last I saw of her for many a weary month.

Ah! Suzanne, child, had it not been for the watching of little Sihamba, the walker-by-moonlight, you had not been sitting there to-day, looking much as she used to look, the Suzanne of fifty years ago.
The marriage was to take place at noon, and though I had much to see to, never have I known a longer morning.

Why it was I cannot say, but it seemed to me as though twelve o'clock would never come.