ON A DUTCH FARM
The voyage had passed so pleasantly that Yorke was quite sorry when
it was over. The acquaintances he had made were all going up-country,
a few to farms where they had friends, but the greater part to
Kimberley or Johannesburg, where they thought they would be sure to
find something to turn their hands to. Three or four were going on to
Durban, having friends or relatives in Natal. On landing Yorke was
almost bewildered by the crowd of laughing, shouting men, for the most
part blacks, though there were many whose red fezzes showed them to
be Mohammedans, mostly Malays. All of these were offering to carry
luggage, or recommending rival hotels or boarding-houses. Fortunately
Yorke had arranged with one of his friends to go to the same hotel.
Pushing their way through the throng, they hired a vehicle somewhat
resembling a hansom in appearance, and bearing in large letters its
name, "Old England," and were driven to the hotel which one of the
ship's officers had recommended to them.
"There is no mistake about our being abroad, Harberton," Howard,
Yorke's companion, laughed. "What a mixed crowd, Kaffirs and Malays,
whitey-brown mixtures, Dutchmen and British! But even without them,
the vehicles are as un-English as possible. They are certainly ahead
of us in the way of traction-engines; that fellow dragging two waggons
behind it is the third we have seen. The tram-cars are more like ours,
but the row they keep up with those gongs is enough to frighten any
well-conducted horse. Look at that funny two-wheeled vehicle drawn by a
pair of horses. I suppose it is what they call a Cape cart; you see it
has a hood. I don't think I ever saw a two-wheeled trap with two horses
before. Evidently Dutch is the language here, for even the Kaffirs
and Malays jabber in it. I rather wish now that I had followed your
example, Harberton, and tried to learn enough to make a start with. It
makes you feel like an ass if you can't ask for the simplest thing and
get understood in a country under your own flag."
After reaching the hotel, Yorke made enquiries of an English clerk as
to the hour at which the trains for Kimberley left. He found there
were only two a day, and that the morning one arrived at Brakpoort
Station, his destination, a distance of some four hundred miles from
Cape Town, at twelve o'clock on the following day. The letter to Mr.
Allnutt had been left open, so that he could give that gentleman some
idea of when he might be expected. The clerk told him that Brakpoort
was a comparatively small place, but that he would have no difficulty
in hiring a cart there to drive him out to the farm, which lay eighteen
miles west, being about midway between the station and the town of
Richmond. Yorke now added a line or two indicating the time at which he
would arrive at Brakpoort, closed the letter, and went out and posted
it.
After having done this he walked about for a time. The town impressed
him favourably. Some of the old Dutch houses still remained, but their
appearance was scarcely picturesque. Their fronts were of almost
unbroken flatness, and distinguished only by their superabundance of
windows. The shops were excellent, and far superior to those of Yeovil.
The articles were all European, and he looked in vain for anything that
had the appearance of native manufacture. If he had found any small
distinctive articles he would have bought them to send home to his
mother and sisters. Howard, who was going up to Kimberley, told him
that evening that, instead of starting as he had intended to do on the
following morning, he would wait another day.
"It will be pleasanter for us both," he said. "It is slow work
travelling with half a dozen fellows whose language one does not
understand, and I know the Boers are not inclined to be civil. While
you were out, I was chatting to a man who had just come down from
Pretoria, and he says that everything there looked very gloomy. Of
course our people have had their hopes raised owing to the fact that
their case has been taken up at last by the home authorities. They
are convinced that Kruger, who, by all accounts, is one of the most
obstinate and conceited old brutes that ever lived, will never give way
an inch, and that, in fact, he will fight rather than do so. Indeed,
they believe that he is bent on forcing on a war; and the Boers say
openly that in another year the Rooineks will have to go--Rooineks
means English. So it will be much more pleasant for us to travel
together. I heard you just now trying to talk to that coffee-coloured
servant, and I saw that you were able to make him understand a little,
so if we want to ask any questions about stopping-places, and so on,
you will be useful."
"Dutch seems hard when you first look at it," Yorke said, "but you soon
see that most of the words are really very like English, though they
are spelt differently. One of my books is a sort of conversation book,
with questions and answers on useful subjects, such as you are likely
to meet with when you are travelling, when you are at a hotel, and so
on. Of course they put a 'J' where we put an 'I,' and it puzzles one
at first, but I think that in a month or two I shall begin to get on
fairly well with it."
"Well, if what they say is true, we shall have a lively time of it
before long; but though they brag a great deal, I can hardly believe
they will be mad enough to go to war with us. If they do, it will
put a stop to business for a time, and, as Kimberley is close to the
frontier, we shall bear the brunt of it."
They started by the train arranged, carrying with them a basket of
provisions for the journey, having been warned that this was absolutely
necessary, as, except at one or two of the stations, there was
nothing whatever to be had. In the old waggon days, their informant
had told them, every traveller had to provide himself for the whole
journey, and the custom had become so general, that it would hardly
pay speculators to set up refreshment places except at the principal
stations. Even these could only rely upon the custom of Europeans, as
the Boers are far too parsimonious to think of buying provisions when
they can carry their own with them.
They went to the station early so as to secure corner seats. The
carriage filled up at starting, but several left at the stations
nearest to the town, and after travelling for a couple of hours, only
four remained in the carriage besides themselves. These were all Dutch.
They carried on a very animated conversation among themselves.
"I think it is just as well that we don't understand them," Yorke said
quietly. "I can only catch a few words here and there, but I am sure
they are running us down. I don't mean us, but the English in general."
"Then it is quite as well we don't understand them, for I certainly
should not sit quiet and hear them abusing us; and as there are four
of them, all big fellows, a quarrel might have very disagreeable
consequences. I was warned down at Cape Town that if I wished to live
in peace and quiet I must keep in with these fellows; and if it is bad
here, it must be a great deal worse for our people up in the Transvaal."
The journey was for the most part uninteresting; but there was some
superb scenery at the Flex River, and through a series of grand slopes
where the line crosses a mountain range. Sometimes the country was
hilly, but it was bare of trees; farmhouses were sparsely scattered
about; the vegetation was all parched up, for it was now the middle of
summer, and no rain had fallen for a considerable time.
"Unless the cattle have learnt to eat sand," Yorke said with a laugh,
"I don't know how they can exist; and yet the land seemed rich enough
for the first part of the journey."
"I believe it is very rich where it is cultivated, and either wells
are sunk, or dams constructed in narrow valleys or dips to catch the
water. I believe the vineyards and orchards lying in the districts
north of the Cape are extremely rich, but as a rule the Boer farmers
are too ignorant to make improvements. They are cattle-raisers rather
than farmers. The British settlers are, for the most part, men of
insufficient capital. Some day, no doubt, when the country is more
thickly settled, and there are better markets, there will be a very
different state of things. I have no doubt that artesian wells would
furnish an abundant supply of water in most places, and with them and
irrigation and the planting of trees, it will be a splendid country.
Where there are plenty of trees, the rainfall always increases; and
what is of almost equal importance, the ground round them retains the
moisture, instead of the rain rushing off and being carried down in
torrents before it has had time to do much good. However, I have no
idea of farming; but I am sure that anyone with capital coming out,
and planting a few hundred acres of trees near Kimberley, would make a
bigger fortune than by investing in mines."
"He would have to wait a long time for his money," Yorke said.
"Yes, but he could raise vegetables between the young trees; and my
uncle, whom I am going to, says that vegetables fetch a tremendous
price at Kimberley."
After a weary journey of twenty-eight hours they arrived at Brakpoort.
"Here you are, Harberton!"
"Well, I hope we shall meet again. I am sure to come up to Kimberley,
sooner or later."
"If you do, don't forget that I have given you my uncle's address, and
you are sure to find me there, or, at any rate, to find out where I am."
It was but a small wayside station, and Yorke felt somewhat desolate
after he had shaken hands with his friend and got out with his
portmanteau and bag. The feeling was speedily dispelled, for hurrying
towards him he saw Mr. Allnutt.
"How are you, Yorke, my boy?" his cousin said, as he grasped his hand.
"I am glad to see you, though I am sorry to hear of the cause that has
sent you out here. I only received your letter this morning. Luckily I
had sent a Kaffir over yesterday for a parcel. I started ten minutes
after I got it, and only arrived here a quarter of an hour ago. I
thought that you might have some difficulty in getting a cart to carry
you so far. We shall have to wait two hours to give the horses a rest,
for I have driven fast, and the road--I don't suppose you would call it
a road--is very heavy."
"It is very kind of you to come over to meet me," Yorke said, much
affected with the heartiness of the reception. "I should certainly be
very glad of a drink, for it was so terribly hot yesterday and this
morning, that, though we thought we had laid in a good supply of water,
we finished it all at our first meal this morning."
"Well, we shall get a very fair lunch at this store here. These
stations are used, you see, by people for many miles round. Your father
tells me that you are all well at home, but, I suppose, greatly upset
at this bad business."
"No. Of course it will make a lot of difference to us, but I think they
troubled more about my coming away than they did about the loss of the
money."
"Well, lad, a year or two of our rough life will do you good, and they
won't know you when you go back to them."
"Is Mrs. Allnutt quite well, sir?"
"Yes," the colonist said, "she is very well, Yorke; she always is
well." But the lad detected a change in the tone in which he spoke.
"I hope it wasn't a disagreeable surprise to her, sir, my coming so
suddenly upon you?"
"No, it was not. She was surprised, of course, but I am sure that
she will make you comfortable. My wife is a good woman, a very good
woman; but, you see, she is Dutch, and she does not take to new ideas
suddenly. I have no doubt she will be just as pleased as I am at your
coming, when she gets to know you, and will feel that, having no
children of our own, you will be a great acquisition, and brighten
us up very much. There is one thing I must warn you about: she is
prejudiced, I must admit that. You see, almost all the people round us
are Dutch, and of late there has been what I may call a nasty feeling
among them. There is an association called the Africander Bond, and
its object, as far as I can see, is to establish the supremacy of
the Dutch in Africa. It is doing a lot of harm. Until a short time
back, the English and Dutch got on very well together, and as far as
supremacy goes, the greater part of the members of the assembly were
Dutch, and almost all the officials. We did not mind that. No doubt
the colony would have gone ahead a good deal faster if our people had
had more voice in affairs, for it cannot be denied that the Dutch
hate changes of any kind, and would like the world to stand still. A
Dutchman would still rather travel in his lumbering waggon, and take a
week over it, than make a railway journey of a few hours. That gives
you a fair sample of their dislike to change. Of course I am accustomed
to these things, and keep quiet when my neighbours come in and set to
work talking over affairs, and discussing the possibility of a great
Dutch Republic over the whole of South Africa. It does not worry me. I
know well enough that England will never let them have it; but I don't
tell them so. I like peace and quiet, and I say nothing; and you must
say nothing, Yorke. That is the one thing that I have to impress upon
you. Never argue with my wife on that subject. She is a good woman,
but, naturally enough, being Dutch, she thinks as her countrymen do.
That is the one rock ahead; if you steer clear of that, we shall get on
capitally."
By this time they were seated in a large room at the store eating their
lunch, while a Kaffir boy was squatting near the four horses, which
were munching mealies. Mr. Allnutt had come out a young man to the
Cape thirty years before. He was of an easy disposition, and did not
succeed; he was therefore glad to obtain employment on the farm of a
large Dutch farmer. The latter had an only child, a daughter of sixteen
years old, who, before the good-looking young Englishman had been there
many months, fell in love with him, and announced to her father her
intention of marrying him. The old man raved and stormed, shut her up
for a time, and even threatened to beat her. Finding that she was still
obstinate, he sent her for two years to a school in Cape Town. This had
no effect whatever. She returned with very enlarged ideas as to the
decencies of living, and wanted, as he said, to turn the house upside
down. Finding it impossible to bend her to his will, he gave in. She
had kept up a correspondence with Allnutt, who had, of course, been
discharged as soon as the farmer had discovered his daughter's fancy
for him.
He had not been insensible to the advantages of the position. Her
father owned large numbers of cattle and horses, and an extensive tract
of land watered by a stream that, except at very dry seasons, was
always full. He had been working at a farm near Colesberg, and on the
receipt of a letter from her announcing that her father was willing to
sanction the match he at once returned and married her. A year later
her father died, to Allnutt's great relief, and his wife at once set to
work to transmogrify the interior of the house, and to equip it in the
fashion which she had learned to value at the Cape.
The great stove which had before been in use was removed and replaced
by an open fire, and the room fitted with carpets and English
furniture. The upstairs rooms were similarly altered and furnished,
curtains were hung at all the windows, and though outside the house
retained the appearance of an ordinary Boer homestead, the interior
had the appearance of the house of a well-to-do British colonist.
Once a year Mrs. Allnutt and her husband had gone down to Cape Town,
and remained there for a month; this had kept her in touch with
civilization. Out of doors the farm was managed entirely by her
husband, but inside the house she was absolute mistress.
After giving the horses an hour's rest, Mr. Allnutt and Yorke started
in a Cape cart, the Kaffir taking the reins, while they sat on the seat
behind him. Mr. Allnutt chatted pleasantly as they drove, and although
the road crossed the veldt, it was not uninteresting.
Yorke was surprised when the farmer pointed to a house on a low nek
between two hills and said, "That is my place, Yorke. It is two miles
away yet, but I am on my own ground now. Roughly, the farm contains
nearly six square miles of level ground and two of hill; it is worth a
good deal more than when I took it. I saw that if it had water it would
support three times as many cattle as there were on it, and I dammed
the stream up in the hills and brought water down, and have irrigated
three or four hundred acres. It took a lot of work, but Kaffir labour
is cheap. I cut the grass twice and make hay of it; six months in
the year I let the cattle feed on it, and it has fully answered my
expectations, and every year repays me all the expense of carrying
the job out. The Dutch farmers around come here and admire, and envy
the green pasture when their own is burnt up, but though they see
the advantage well enough, there is not one of them has attempted to
imitate it."
"It must have been a big job fencing it in," Yorke said.
"Yes; I could not do that the first year, but the aloes and
prickly-pear of which it is made grow very quickly. The farm itself is
enclosed by barbed-wire fencing. The law obliges every settler to fence
his land."
As they drove up to the door Mrs. Allnutt came out. Her two years
at Cape Town and her subsequent visits there had prevented her from
falling into the loose and slovenly way of the ordinary Boer farmer's
wife. She was a large woman and somewhat stout, but her dress was
neat and well-fitting. She had a strong but not unpleasant face, and
welcomed Yorke with more geniality than he expected.
"You are welcome," she said. "It is a long journey for you to have made
alone. Were you sent out here, or did you come at your own wish?"
"It was my own proposal," Yorke replied. "I could not remain idle at
home, and I was too young to go into any business there. I am fond
of outdoor exercise, and as Mr. Allnutt, when in England, had kindly
invited me to come over, I thought it would be best for me to accept
his offer, and to learn something of the country and its ways before I
made a start for myself."
"You were quite right," she said. "Certainly a stay here for a time
will do that for you. But come in. Of course you will find our ways a
little strange at first, but you look sensible, and I have no doubt you
will soon feel at home."
After what Yorke had heard of the mode of life of the Dutch farmer, he
was surprised to find, when he entered the house, an air of English
comfort pervading it. The room prepared for him was such as he would
meet with in the house of a well-to-do farmer in England; the furniture
was good and substantial, muslin curtains hung at the windows. Looking
out, he saw that the whole back of the house was covered with roses in
full bloom, and that there was a small but pretty garden behind; round
this was a large orchard--apple, pear, peach, and other fruit trees. He
had seen nothing like this in any of the farmhouses they had passed on
the road. On returning downstairs, after indulging in a good wash, he
expressed his thanks to Mrs. Allnutt for the comfort of his bedroom,
and his admiration for the gorgeous show of roses in the garden.
"Yes," she said, "I saw the gardens of many of the English mansions
round Cape Town, and I made up my mind to have something like them
here. My neighbours at first all thought it a terrible waste of labour,
but I do not as a rule care much for other folks' opinions; and though
I do not pretend to like your people, I do not see why we should
not adopt their customs when we see that they are better than our
own--especially when so many of our people living near Cape Town have
taken to them."
"Everything looks very nice and comfortable, Mrs. Allnutt, and if I had
not looked out of the window I should not have known that I was not at
home."
"Can you ride?" she asked abruptly; for although her residence at Cape
Town had taught her to appreciate the modes of life there, she did not
like being thought, even in such a matter, to copy the British, and
chose to consider that they were those of the better class of her own
people--as, indeed, was the case.
"Yes, I can ride," Yorke said. "I am very fond of it."
"Can you shoot?"
"I have begun," he said. "You see, I have been at school, and it is
only during the winter holidays that I have had any chance, and just
the last fortnight of the long holiday in summer."
"But how is that?" she asked. "Why do you not shoot all the year round?"
"Because it is a close time up to the 1st of September, and there is
not much shooting after January; people begin to hunt about that time."
"Yes, game is protected here also."
Yorke had told his cousin that he had begun to learn Dutch, and was
very anxious to get to speak the language well, and on the latter
telling his wife, she nodded approvingly.
"You will have plenty of opportunities, for Dutch is the language of
the house. Sometimes I speak in English with my husband, because I wish
to keep it up, but he speaks Dutch as well as I do. But as the Kaffirs
speak our language, and do not understand English, it is much more
convenient to speak that language. You had better get Hans," she went
on, turning to her husband, "to go about with him; in that way he will
soon learn to speak Taal. He is very little use to me about the house;
he is very lazy, and if it wasn't for his father having been killed on
the place, I would not keep him a day."
Hans had taken the horses when the cart drew up. He was a rough,
slouching lad of about Yorke's age, loosely built, and altogether
unkempt and slovenly; his father, who had been Mr. Allnutt's head
cattleman, had been thrown from his horse and pitched on his head,
breaking his neck instantly. Hans Smidt, who was ten years old at the
time, having no relations, had been taken on at the house, and was
supposed to aid in looking after the horses there, watering the garden,
and doing odd jobs. He was now receiving the same wages as the Kaffir
labourers, although, as Mrs. Allnutt declared, a Kaffir boy was worth a
dozen of him.
For the next few days Yorke rode about the farm with his cousin,
inspecting the herds and getting a general idea of the place.
"You will save me a good deal of trouble, Yorke," his cousin, who
objected to trouble of any kind, said. "You can ride down twice a day
and see that the Kaffirs are doing their work and preventing the cattle
from straying too far away. Beyond that you can amuse yourself as you
like. There are a dozen young horses which want breaking in. I see you
have a good seat, and you will, no doubt, be able to manage that. There
is no shooting about here, though you can occasionally get a deer among
the hills. Still, it is just as well that you should learn to use a
rifle. Every man in this country is a fair marksman, and, even when
there is little chance of coming upon game, often rides with his rifle
slung across his back. I am sure you would not like to be beaten by any
of the Dutch lads. They are not such good shots now as they used to be
when game was plentiful, and of course shooting is not so important
here as it is in the Transvaal, where every man may be called upon at
any moment to go out on commando against the natives. Still, it is the
accomplishment on which Boers pride themselves, and you may find it
useful if you stay in the country. For if one is to believe all these
Dutchmen say, there is likely to be a lot of trouble out here before
long."
"Not in this part, I suppose, uncle,"--for so Yorke had taken to call
his cousin. "I know there may be a row in the Transvaal, but surely not
here?"
"I don't know, Yorke. If it begins in one part, there is no saying how
it will spread. I believe that if the Transvaal begins war, the Orange
Free State will join. They have not a shadow of grievance. They are
wholly independent of us, and have always been quiet and peaceful, and
there does not seem to be any of the ill-feeling against the English
that prevails in the Transvaal. Still, there is never any saying; and
I believe that Steyn, their president, is a very ambitious man. This
Africander Bond is doing a great deal of mischief in Cape Colony, and
although the Dutch element have it pretty nearly their own way, I doubt
if they will not join the Dutch across the Orange River if these rise."
"But what is it they really want?" Yorke asked.
"They want to be masters here altogether. They see the gold mines and
diamond mines prospering enormously, and they think that if they could
drive us out, all this wealth would come into their hands. They dream
of one great Republic, and of their flag waving everywhere. I don't say
that they would drive the English out altogether; their talents and
energy would be useful to them, and, as in the Transvaal, they would
make them pay all the taxes of the country. Kruger would, of course,
be President of the Republic, but he is an old man, and Steyn would
naturally be his successor. That is why he may be expected to drag the
Free State into the matter should there be a row."
"But they can hardly think that England would consent to let them go?"
"That is what they do think, Yorke. Since that Majuba business, and
the fatal surrender afterwards, they despise us altogether. They do
not believe for a moment that we shall fight, and they are positive
that if we should venture to do so, they would thrash us without the
slightest difficulty. They have accumulated enormous stores of rifles
and artillery, and believe that, as they licked us so easily when they
were unprovided with these things, it will be a mere walk over now.
Kruger will keep up a correspondence with Chamberlain until everything
is absolutely ready, then he will break off negotiations, and there
will be war--that is, if England is bold enough to venture upon it.
That is the Boer idea of things, Yorke. You will hear it openly
discussed up at the house. Even in the farms round here there are
stores of ammunition hidden away, and if war does begin, and a material
advantage is gained, you will see the whole country on fire from Cape
Town to Pretoria.
"Of course, there are many of the Dutch of the better class who would
far rather let things remain as they are at present. They have no
ground of complaint against us; they are free to elect their own
representatives, and to make their own laws; the British authority is
little more than nominal, and we have not five thousand soldiers in
this colony or Natal. It seems to me that the peril is a very serious
one. There is nothing to prevent twenty-five thousand Boers marching
into Durban, and another force of the same strength capturing Cape
Town. Each force would be swollen as it went. Every man would be
mounted; they would be armed with the best rifles that money could
purchase, and they are good shots. They would need no transport, for
they would seize the cattle of the British colonists, and plunder
stores as they went. I ask you, what could five thousand infantry do
against such a force?"
"It certainly looks bad, uncle--much worse than I thought."
"As far as I am concerned, Yorke, it would, I think, make but little
difference to us; and as for my wife, she would hoist their flag as
they came along, and probably ride herself to welcome them. So I
may take it that they would not interfere with anything here; and
personally I should be no worse off, for the Assembly at Cape Town
could hardly be more Dutch than it is at present. The only change that
I should feel would be, that on holidays we should have the Republican
flag flying on the flagstaff instead of the Union Jack, which would be
a bitter pill to swallow."
"But the British colonists would join the troops, surely?"
"The British colonists are neither armed nor organized. I have no doubt
that many of the younger men would try and make their way down to Cape
Town, and join any force that was raised there. But all that would take
time; and even if twenty thousand joined here and in Natal, what use
could they be against an insurrection over a million square miles, with
a great nucleus of well-armed men?"
"Well, uncle, at any rate I will steadily practise shooting; and if, as
seems likely, trouble is really coming on, I shall go down to Cape Town
and try to get into a new corps that is being raised."
"Well, Yorke, I shall not try to dissuade you; I have no legal
authority over you; and if I were a young man, that is what I should
do myself. But if you wish for any peace and quiet here, you must
keep your intentions to yourself, and, above all, hold your tongue
when you hear treason talked up at the house. My wife has taken to
you much better than I expected. But though she, from having been at
school at Cape Town, and going down there pretty often, and reading
a good deal, has much better ideas of the power of England than most
of her countrymen, she believes that England will not fight, and that
even if it does, it will soon see the impossibility of reconquering
such a tremendous country as this. And really, I cannot disagree with
her after what we saw in the last war, and from what we know of the
preparations the Boers have made."
"I think she is wrong, uncle. I don't say that we may be able to
reconquer the whole of South Africa, but I feel sure that, whatever it
costs, England will hold the Cape and Durban and the other seaports,
for they are of immense importance to her."
"Let us say no more about it, lad. It is causing me a deal of trouble;
so I hold my tongue, for I can't afford to be on bad terms with all the
neighbours, and in constant hot water at home. There is any amount of
ammunition in the house, so you can practise as much as you like, and
there are plenty of spots among the hills where you can do it quietly,
and so far away from the house that there would be no chance of being
heard. Of course you could occasionally fire near, for it would seem
only natural to my wife that you should like to learn to shoot when
everyone else does. This will be the last day that I shall ride with
you; but always take Hans. He may look like a fool, but I don't think
he is one. He is slim, as the Dutch say, that is, he is crafty. If he
could turn his hand to anything, he would have to do a good deal more
work than at present. He is like the monkeys, you know. They say they
could talk well enough if they liked, but they know that if they did
they would be compelled to work."
Hans' face brightened up greatly when he was told that he was freed
from all other duties, and was to consider himself entirely at Yorke's
disposal--a young Kaffir being at once engaged to perform the work he
had previously done--and henceforth no complaint could be made of his
laziness. Whatever the hour at which Yorke wanted to start, the horses
were ready for him, and the boys were often out on the veldt before
anyone else in the house was moving. Yorke threw himself into his
work with ardour, for it suited him admirably. There were the cattle
to look after, and sometimes long rides to be undertaken in search of
animals that had strayed. The horses gave little trouble. A few bundles
of freshly-cut grass were carried to them every morning, and with the
stream handy to them they had the sense to know that they could do
no better elsewhere. Several Kaffir labourers cut the corn-cobs and
carried them up to a large shed near the house, while the stalks and
leaves were piled into a stack for mixing with the hay in the winter.
On many farms all this was burnt as fuel, but the colonist had, soon
after he became master of the farm, planted fifty acres of fir-trees on
the slopes of one of the valleys, and the clearings of these furnished
an abundant stock of firewood, and indeed added materially to the
returns of the farm by the sale of the surplus to neighbours.
Every day Yorke practised for an hour with the rifle, firing, not at a
target, which, with its white square, resembles nothing that a soldier
would have to aim at in a battle, but at some mark on a stone on the
hillside, or a block of wood of the size of a man's head, half hidden
in a tussock of coarse grass on the veldt. This block Hans always
carried with him when they were going shooting. Yorke practised judging
distance on level and broken ground, both from the saddle and on foot,
guessing it as nearly as he could, and then stepping it. At the end
of four months he could judge very closely the distance of any object
he saw up to seven or eight hundred yards, and was tolerably sure of
hitting it. He had practised, too, shooting from the saddle.
After he had been there a short time Mr. Allnutt, seeing that he could
sit any horse on the farm, had given him one of his own, which was
as yet unbroken. Yorke took great pains in training it, teaching it
to halt when at full gallop, to remain immovable while he fired from
the saddle, or, standing by it, used it as a rest for his barrel. It
would lie down when he told it, and come at his whistle. Its sire was
an English hunter which Mr. Allnutt had bought to improve the strain
of his horses, so that it was a faster, as well as a more powerful,
animal than the native-bred horses, while possessing an equal amount of
hardiness and endurance.
"I think it is the best I ever bred," he said to Yorke three months
after the latter had arrived at the farm. "And I chose it for you
especially, because I saw at once that you would do it credit, and
that some day it might be of the utmost importance to you to be well
mounted. As to myself, it does not make any difference whether I ride a
mile slower or a mile faster an hour; and on the whole, I prefer going
a mile slower. Besides, you see, as a relation of mine I wish you to do
me credit, and I like to take the conceit out of some of these Dutch
lads, who think so much of themselves. I don't know when I was more
pleased than when you beat Dirck Jansen yesterday by twenty lengths.
He was always boasting that he had the best horse in this part of the
colony. Of course you had the advantage of being at least two stone the
lighter; but they don't take any account of weight out here. Besides,
I could see that if you wanted to, you could have beaten him by twice
as much. Between ourselves, I don't think your aunt was quite as well
pleased as I. He is a great favourite of hers, and moreover is her
cousin. However, we needn't mind that, except that I fancy you have
made an enemy, and may have trouble with him by and by. These Dutch
don't often forgive an injury; if they cannot avenge it at once, it
rankles in their minds till they see an opportunity for wiping it out."