ONLY A BIT OF RIBBON GAY!
The conspicuously bright hues of the "Vierkleur" round Hansie's hat
attracted the attention of the new-comers in Pretoria, and she was
often asked what they represented. In course of time other girls
donned their colours, flaunting them in the face of the enemy on every
possible occasion.
Now perhaps this was indiscreet, but, after all, what harm could it
do?
It was a certain comfort to them, and there could be no objection to
their taking a public stand for their own, under British martial law.
At least, _we_ thought so. Not so the enemy!
About three weeks after the British entry into the capital, the van
Warmelos were told that orders had been issued that no Transvaal
burgher in Pretoria would in future be permitted to wear the
"Vierkleur."
"Impossible! I do not believe it," Hansie exclaimed.
"What are you going to do?" her mother inquired.
"Go out as usual with my 'Vierkleur' on, and see what happens," she
said.
She went out and nothing happened, so she went out again next day, and
the next.
In the meantime she heard that dozens of women and girls had been
stopped in the streets and marched off to the various Charge Offices,
where their colours were forcibly removed and detained as contraband
articles of war.
Her mother warned her not to run the risk of losing her precious
ribbon, and advised her to put it away, but Hansie was determined to
wear it until _compelled_ to submit. For a few days she rode about as
usual, accompanied by Carlo, without being molested in any way, and
she was just beginning to feel reassured, when, one day, a petty
officer rode up to her in the street and ordered her to take off her
Transvaal colours. She was on her way to Consul Cinatti's house, and
was walking, for the Portuguese Consulate was quite close to Harmony.
With the horse prancing before her, she could not very well proceed on
her way. She stopped and looked up at the soldier. She did not like
his face at all, and changed her mind about what she meant to say to
him.
"Why don't you do as I tell you? Take off that ribbon at once," he
commanded.
"Why don't you go and conquer the Transvaal?" she asked.
"I have my orders," he said, with a black look, "and if you don't
remove those colours from your hat immediately, I shall send some one
to take them off by force."
"Take the Transvaal first," she said persuasively, "then you will be
quite welcome to my bit of ribbon."
He wheeled round suddenly and tore off to the Sunnyside Charge Office,
lashing his poor horse savagely and looking round at her with a
watchful eye every few yards.
Hansie walked faster, and had nearly reached the side gate of the
Consulate, when she saw him returning with two other mounted soldiers.
She dived through the gate, and running through the garden,
unceremoniously entered the house at a side door.
"Oh, Celeste!" she said to the astonished Miss Cinatti, "there are
three men after me!"
"Three men after you! What do you mean?"
"They want my precious 'Vierkleur.' What shall I do?"
"Take it off!"
"Never!"
Here they were joined by Mr. Cinatti, who waved his arms and stamped
his feet when he heard the story, and got so excited and indignant
that he spluttered even more than usual in his broken English.
"What meant it all? What impudent impertinence was dis? It was nothing
but one big mean trick, a prying trap," etc., etc.
When the storm was over (and his storms were usually of brief
duration) he asked Hansie, with a gesture of comical despair:
"What are we going to do now?"
"I don't know."
"Will you take off dat ribbon?"
"I will not."
Hugely delighted, he clasped his hands in well-assumed agony of mind.
"Stay here and go home in de dark?"
"No," Hansie laughed.
"I'll tell you. Celeste will give you anudder ribbon to put over dat
one."
"Thank you very much," Hansie said. "Yes, that is a good idea."
Miss Cinatti fastened a broad white ribbon over the "Vierkleur," and
Hansie bade her an affectionate farewell. The Consul escorted her to
the gate, where they found one of the mounted soldiers guarding the
entrance, while the second had been stationed at the side gate into
which Hansie had been seen to disappear. The man who had addressed her
first was nowhere to be seen. Mr. Cinatti glared at the soldier, who
backed away from the entrance, and allowed the girl to pass. He did
not look triumphant--on the contrary he saluted respectfully; but the
other Tommy at the side gate laughed when he saw the white ribbon on
her hat, and I am afraid that Hansie felt very much inclined to say,
"I've got my 'Vierkleur' on still!" But she wisely refrained, walking
on stiffly without so much as a glance at the man. That night she
slowly and sadly took off her 'bit of ribbon gay,' replacing it by a
black band in token of mourning and bereavement.
There was too much at stake, and she felt it would be better to keep
the ribbon in safety at home than to run the risk of being deprived of
it by force.
A sympathetic friend afterwards painted two crossed flags, the flags
of the Transvaal and the Free State, on her band of black, and this
she wore unmolested until the end of the war.