A BOER "NACHTMAAL"
For two days Johannesburg's great "Market Square" had been filled with
out-spanned heavy ox-drawn wagons. Uncle Abraham and Petrus had arrived
with hundreds of other Boer farmers from the surrounding country,
for the semi-annual "Nachtmaal"--which really means "night meal" or
"Sacrament." It was always an occasion of great excitement and bustle.
For, besides the "Divine Service," which lasted all day, there was
the pleasurable excitement of meeting old friends, making new ones,
shopping, selling, and putting through of business deals. Most of the
burghers brought their whole families with them. But Uncle Abraham and
Petrus had had to come alone this year. Great-grandfather Joubert was
not very well. They greatly missed Aunt Johanna, Magdalena and the
children.
Aunt Kotie had urged them to stay with her. But because of the big load
of wool he had to sell, Uncle Abraham thought it best to remain in the
"Market Square" where all the transactions were made.
To the Boer youths and maidens "Nachtmaal" meant a time of baptisms,
confirmations, engagements, and marriages. After the services of the
day were over, Boer sweethearts met under the blinking stars in the
shadow of the tent-wagons and repeated love's old story to each other.
Half way to Johannesburg they had halted their wagon at a
little "Negotic Winkel," or store, to lay in a good supply of
sweets--"Lakkers" and "Mottoes"--of which both Uncle Abraham and
Petrus were inordinately fond. As they had decided to eat alongside
their wagon they purchased also numerous boxes of sardines and sweet
biscuits. Coffee they had brought from home.
The first "Divine Service" began at seven o'clock in the morning. The
last was not over until long after dark. Before each service--if there
was no business to be transacted--the men lingered about the church
door discussing their crops, the latest hail storm or drought, their
children and their troubles with their Kafirs. The women and girls
gathered in chattering groups about the tent-wagons, in their stiff,
new print dresses and heavily piped black "kappies"--well-lined and
frilled, for the sake of protecting their complexions from the strong
African sun.
At the first peal of the organ all trooped into the church, the
"Kirkraad"--dressed in black with white neckties--entering first, with
the minister, or Predikant, and seating themselves up in the front pews
before the pulpit. Then the solemn rites began.
During the brief spaces between services Uncle Abraham and Petrus
visited the various stores, carefully attending to the half-yearly
shopping for Aunt Johanna. Uncle Abraham also disposed advantageously
of his farm produce. He had never brought to market a better clip of
wool than this. For it he had just received the very satisfactory price
of three hundred golden sovereigns. Of this he had immediately paid out
one hundred and fifty pounds in necessary household and agricultural
purchases, such as a new cultivator, coffee to last until the next
"Nachtmaal," barbed-wire and a large supply of strong, new wool-sacks.
He was sorry to be deprived of Aunt Johanna's help.
But together he and Petrus made their purchases, always hurrying
instantly back to their pew in the church at the first sound of the
bell from the little "bell-tent." As, one by one, the items on the long
list were purchased and crossed off, the home-load in the big wagon
mounted higher and still higher, until by evening it would hold no
more.
It had been a good "Nachtmaal." The inspiring services, old friendships
renewed, the large number of marriages and engagements, and the golden
sovereigns in his pocket, all told him so. He handed Petrus a generous
amount, telling him he might need it on his trip. The sun was sinking
in the west, and the trek back to the farm a long one. So he in-spanned
his long team of oxen just as Aunt Kotie's motor came whizzing up for
Petrus. The boy hesitated. It was his first trip away from home alone.
He had never been parted from his dear Uncle Abraham.
As he jumped into her car he could see through the gathering dusk many
fathers of families, Bible in hand, standing in their wagons conducting
evening service. Aunt Kotie's driver was a Zulu, he noticed, but not
with alarm.
"Trek!" yelled Uncle Abraham to his oxen. Aunt Kotie had just
promised him she would go with Koos to Kimberley and put him safely
in Lieutenant Wortley's care. Petrus waved "good-by" as the big wagon
rolled off and vanished in the deepening twilight.
* * * * *
Aunt Kotie lived in Parktown, the most fashionable quarter of the
great metropolis. Next morning, from her upper veranda, Petrus got a
wonderful bird's-eye view over the city, and off to the Mageliesberg
Mountains. South of the city, as Aunt Kotie explained, the Vaal and
other streams of the Orange River glided through gorges to the Atlantic
Ocean, while northward they flowed to the Limpopo, and then on into the
Indian Ocean.
Petrus noticed that a huge, black-skinned Zulu, who eyed him narrowly
from time to time, served them at breakfast, and that still another
black giant--a particularly evil-looking fellow, under whose tread the
very earth shook--helped him and his aunt into the waiting motor car
for their sightseeing ride. Aunt Kotie explained that native boys did
all her work. She found them more reliable than white help.
As they drove down broad streets, past great stone and marble
buildings, palatial club-houses, fine churches, museums, and the High
School, Aunt Kotie saw that something was wrong. The people walked
briskly and excitedly about the streets. Ugly rumors of anti-German
riots had reached her. "Market Square," of yesterday's peaceful
"Nachtmaal" was now filled with striking miners, who were in open
revolt, she was told, having already attacked and battered in the
offices of the Rand gold mines.
So Aunt Kotie ordered her Zulu driver to keep far away from the "Market
Square," and instead of visiting the gold-fields they would motor up to
Pretoria and back--the Union's capital city, which would be sure to
interest Petrus.
[Illustration: "IT WAS A LONG, LOW, ONE-STORY COTTAGE, HALF-HIDDEN BY
THE ROADSIDE TREES"]
In fact, Petrus was having his first glimpse of a great city.
Johannesburg was the equal of any great metropolis of Europe, Aunt
Kotie told him. It was the wonderful "Golden City" he had long wished
to see. He had never been beyond the "Market Square" before. The
"City of Midas," it had been called since the discovery of the famous
"Witwatersrand" or "White Water's Ridge" south of the city.
As they sped in the direction of Pretoria, Petrus gained a panoramic
view of gold mine after mine, from which fabulous wealth had been dug.
Vast reservoirs, then mills, with a long row of great iron chimneys
came in sight, and the roar of batteries crushing the quartz containing
the gold reached their ears.
"These mines must be as rich as the Klondike, Aunt Kotie?" questioned
Petrus.
"Hundreds of times as rich. And we are told that buried beneath
Johannesburg still lies more gold than the world ever saw."
As their motor entered Pretoria's "Market Square" the band was playing
to a gathering of the townsfolk. They could not pause to listen. It was
nearly evening, barely time in which to give Petrus a hasty glimpse of
the Capital's streets, and especially of the "Kantoors," the government
offices for the Union of South Africa, of which General Botha had long
been "Premier."
Before leaving Pretoria Aunt Kotie declared that Petrus must see Paul
Kruger's old home, if only for one glance. It was a long, low one-story
cottage, half-hidden by the roadside trees and shrubbery. Marble lions
guarded either side of the entrance to the broad, shady stoop, where on
many an afternoon President Kruger had enjoyed his coffee and smoked
with his burghers.
"'Oom Paul' his people called him. Every Boer loved him. He was the
close friend of your uncle, General Joubert, who commanded the Boer
forces, and, of course, your father, grandfather, great-grandfather
and Uncle Abraham, all knew him well," explained Aunt Kotie. "Now for
home. To-morrow there'll be more sightseeing for you, Koos," added
his aunt, who was becoming very fond of her bright young nephew from
"Weltefreden."