"Oh, dear, did they starve?" asked Flaxie.
"There, now, if those birds had only been ravens!"
"The party stopped to rest, and they sent one of the Hottentots to watch the oxen; but I dare say he fell asleep, for several of the oxen strayed away.
"It seemed a great pity, for he had to go to look them up and was gone a long time, and the travellers could not afford to wait."
"Well, if they were going to starve, papa, it didn't make any difference whether they waited or not."
"When the Hottentot came back he had a great piece of news to tell. He had found the nest of an ostrich, with forty eggs in it."
"Oh, papa, are ostrich eggs good to eat? Do tell us about it."
"So I will, my daughter, if I am not interrupted too often."
Flaxie blushed, and hid her face on Miss Pike's shoulder.
"The nest of an ostrich is a curiosity, and Mr. Broadbent waded through two or three miles of deep sand to see this one. You would think the mother bird had studied arithmetic all her life, for she seemed to have counted the eggs and set them in their places with perfect exactness. In the middle were fourteen close together, and three or four feet away from them were the other twenty-six eggs in an unbroken circle, as even as a row of gold beads.