To-day came across a Peep-Boer-Show. Seen it all before. Also a kind
of Punch-and-Judy performance going on, translated into South-African
dialect. There was not a paying public to witness it; and, with all
my desire and with every intention to encourage native talent, I was
compelled to turn away, "more in sorrow than in anger," (SHAKSPEARE
again--_Hamlet's Ghost_, I think,) when the pipe-and-drummer man came
to me for a contribution. Not a penny in my pocket. "I will reimburse
thee nobly," said I, "on my return from the Mine-land." He quoted some
line or other, which I did not catch, and gave the name of the writer,
one "WALKER," as his authority. WALKER is associated in my mind with
an English Dictionary, but, though it has been much added to in recent
years, I doubt whether the words the Showman used on this occasion
can be found in my pocket edition, or in any other edition of that
excellent and trustworthy compilation.
[Illustration: Native Masher from Masherland.]