There is a story of an enormously fat old Boer who was seated on the veld with his horse at his side, when suddenly a band of armed natives rushed to attack him.

"Oh, God, help!" he cried in his native _taal_, as he prepared to heave his huge form into the saddle.

Having thus invoked divine assistance, this Dutch Falstaff went at the task with such a will that in a trice he found himself not on the horse, but over it, lying upon his back, indeed, among the grasses.

"O God!" that deluded burgher exclaimed, reproachfully, as the Kaffirs came up and speared him, "Thou hast helped a great deal too much!" At this moment Morris felt very much like this stout but simple dweller in the wilderness.

He would have preferred to coquet with the enemy for a while from the safety of his saddle.