about ten o’clock in the morning
The Boers tittered ; even the Meyer children tittered , for by this time the hatred of the Vrouw Prinsloo for Hernan Pereira was the joke of the place . But Pereira himself pretended not to hear , said good-bye to us all affectionately , adding a special petition for the Vrouw Prinsloo , and off we went . I say `` we went '' because with my usual luck , to help him with the half-broken oxen , I was commandeered to accompany this man to his first outspan , a place with good water about twelve miles from the camp , where he proposed to remain for the night . Now , as we started about ten o'clock in the morning and the veld was fairly level , I expected that we should reach this outspan by three or four in the afternoon , which would give me time to walk back before sunset . In fact , however , so many accidents happened of one sort or another , both to the wagon itself , of which the woodwork had shrunk with long standing in the sun , and to the cattle , which , being unused to the yoke , tied themselves in a double knot upon every opportunity , that we only arrived there at the approach of night . The last mile of that trek was through a narrow gorge cut out by water in the native rock . Here trees grew sparsely , also great ferns , but the bottom of the gorge , along which game were accustomed to travel , was smooth enough for wagons , save for a few fallen boulders , which it was necessary to avoid .