Chapter 16 How to Ride an Ostrich.
We had a great ride, galloping the whole way in the sun, Fritz told us.
And then, coming over a hill, we saw the antelope.
We were going to hunt them, but then we thought we should try and drive them as a herd.
We rode down the hill, yelling and shouting, continued Jack, and drove them along with the dogs.
Great work, boys, I said.
You have done an important thing, but I have to warn you that the rabbits you have caught might be a problem.
Now that you have them, you might find you want to be rid of them.
Soon there will be too many.
That's why we think we should put them on Shark Island, Father, answered Fritz.
I caught them, said Jack, and you should have seen Storm and Grumble and the dogs and I chasing them.
It was amazing.
And then, he continued, excited, we saw Cuckoo and followed it as it hopped away.
Franz thought it must be an enchanted princess under a spell.
Fritz told us it would lead us to honey, and he was right.
Sure enough, it led us to a bee's nest.
We must have scared them because the bees flew out and stung me all over.
I jumped on storm and ran off, but they followed me the whole way.
Out of breath, Jack ran off to check on his rabbits.
The next day, we went to check on the ostriches we had found.
Jack and Franz ran ahead, and suddenly we were upon the giant birds.
This time we found a pair in the bush and were quick to try and catch them.
Again our lassos came in handy.
As Jack and Franz drove the ostriches out of the reeds, Fritz set loose his eagle, which confused one.
As the ostrich faltered, Jack chased it down bravely, threw out his lasso and tied it round its wings and body.
It fell, and we ran up to it, but it was kicking madly.
Finally, I put a hood over its eyes to calm it down.
We had ourselves an ostrich to try and tame.
I'm going to make a saddle so I can ride him, declared Jack.
At this, the boys started arguing about who was the owner of the bird.
I think I should have him, said Franz.
Each of the other boys had a reason for wanting the ostrich for their own.
Finally, I settled it by saying that it was Jack's bird to train.
And, I added, if he can tame it and saddle it, he can keep it.
The boys agreed, and Jack seemed up for the challenge.
We threw the ostrich over the back of Storm and the boys headed out to take it back to our camp where we would get ready to set back for our winter home to load in our supplies.
The next morning we made our way home with our new walking bird.
Soon we came through our farmyard to find it in good shape.
Our animals were healthy and it made us want to see our home in Rockburg even more.
Our chickens, pigs, and goats were all growing their families.
We also came across the herd of antelopes that Fritz and Jack had driven down.
We watched them browsing in the reeds and talked about how beautiful they were.
While we were at the farm, we fixed what we could and then set off for Rockburg the next morning.
By then we were all thrilled to be back and we threw open the doors and windows and aired out our home.
While Jack worked on taming the ostrich, I tried to hatch the eggs by wrapping them in cotton and heating them over the stove.
The next day, Fritz and I headed to Shark Island to start our rabbit colony and to transport a pair of antelope.
Then it was time to turn our mind back to our house and stowing our goods.
Jack's ostrich was proving difficult to train and seemed weak and sad.
Finally, we managed to feed it balls of flour mixed with butter.
It seemed to perk up, stretching out its long neck for another mouthful.
Soon it was back to full strength and quite tame.
We were amazed to watch it eat all kinds of grains and fruit, washing them down with small pebbles to digest its food.
After a month of training, it would walk and gallop on command.
But how could we saddle an ostrich?
I made a kind of hood for it with straps to hold onto and built a small saddle that strapped under it.
When the bird was ready, we decided to call it Master Hurricane because of its speed.
When we finally tried riding the ostrich, we were amazed at how quickly it could run.
We were able to go between Rockburg, which was quickly becoming our permanent place to live, and Falconhurst in no time at all.
The bird was so fast that the boys once again argued about who owned it.
I had to jump in and make a decision.
The ostrich is Jack's, I said.
We may all use it if we needed, but it's Jack's pet.
And so Jack had his master hurricane to ride.
Our journey had been successful, and we all felt secure and safe settling in for the season.
