Part 2 (2/2)
The young farmer put spurs to his horse as he spoke, and dashed away over the plain, closely followed by his new friend, who was not sorry to drop the conversation, being almost entirely ignorant of the merits of the question raised.
The style of the group of buildings to which they drew near was not entirely unfamiliar to Considine, for he had pa.s.sed one or two similar farms, belonging to Cape Dutchmen, on his trip from the sea-coast to the interior. There were about this farm, however, a few prominent points of difference. The cottages, being built of sun-dried bricks, were little better than mud-huts, but there were more of them than Considine had hitherto seen on such farms, and the chief dwelling, in particular, displayed some touches of taste which betokened superior refinement in the inhabitants. The group lay in a hollow on the margin of an insignificant stream, whose course through the plain was marked by a thick belt of beautiful mimosa-bushes. Close to the houses, these mimosas, large enough to merit the t.i.tle of trees, formed a green setting in which the farm appeared to nestle as if desirous of escaping the suns.h.i.+ne. A few cactus shrubs and aloes were scattered about in rear of the princ.i.p.al dwelling, in the midst of which stood several mud-huts resembling gigantic bee-hives. In these dwelt some of the Hottentot and other servants of the farm, while, a little to the right of them, on a high mound, were situated the kraals or enclosures for cattle and sheep. About fifty yards farther off, a clump of tall trees indicated the position of a garden, whose fruit-trees were laden with the blossoms or beginnings of a rich crop of peaches, lemons, oranges, apricots, figs, pears, plums, apples, pomegranates, and many other fruits and vegetables. This bright and fruitful gem, in the midst of the brown and apparently barren karroo, was chiefly due to the existence of a large enclosure or dam which the thrifty farmer had constructed about half a mile from the homestead, and the clear waters of which s.h.i.+mmered in the centre of the picture, even when prolonged drought had quite dried up the bed of its parent stream. The peaceful beauty of the scene was completed by its grand background of blue mountains.
A tall, powerful, middle-aged man, in a coa.r.s.e cloth jacket, leathern trousers or ”crackers,” and a broad-brimmed home-made hat, issued from the chief dwelling-house as the hors.e.m.e.n galloped up and drew rein. The sons of the family and a number of barking dogs also greeted them. Hans and Considine sprang to the ground, while two or three of the eleven brothers, of various ages--also in leathern crackers, but without coats or hats--came forward, kicked the dogs, and led the horses away.
”Let me introduce a stranger, father, whom I have found--lost in the karroo,” said Hans.
”Welcome to Eden! Come in, come in,” said Mynheer Conrad Marais heartily, as he shook his visitor by the hand.
Considine suitably acknowledged the hospitable greeting and followed his host into the princ.i.p.al room of his residence.
There was no hall or pa.s.sage to the house. The visitor walked straight off the veldt, or plain, into the drawing-room--if we may so style it.
The house door was also the drawing-room door, and it was divided transversely into two halves, whereby an open window could at any moment be formed by shutting the lower half of the door. There was no ceiling to the room. You could see the ridge-pole and rafters by looking up between the beams, on one of which latter a swallow--taking advantage of the ever open door and the general hospitality of the family--had built its nest. The six-foot sons almost touched the said nest with their heads; as to the smaller youths it was beyond the reach of most of them, but had it been otherwise no one would have disturbed the lively little intruder.
The floor of the apartment was made of hard earth, without carpet. The whitewashed walls were graced with various garments, as well as implements and trophies of the chase.
From the beams hung joints of meat, ma.s.ses of dried flesh, and various kinds of game, large whips--termed sjamboks (p.r.o.nounced _shamboks_)-- made of rhinoceros or hippopotamus hide, leopard and lion skins, ostrich eggs and feathers, dried fruit, strings of onions, and other miscellaneous objects; on the floor stood a large deal table, and chairs of the same description--all home-made,--two waggon chests, a giant churn, a large iron pot, several wooden pitchers hooped with bra.s.s, and a side-table on which were a large bra.s.s-clasped Dutch Bible, a set of Dutch tea-cups, an urn, and a bra.s.s tea-kettle heated like a chafing-dish. On the walls and in corners were several flint-lock guns, and one or two of the short light javelins used by the Kafirs for throwing in battle, named a.s.sagais.
Three small doors led into three inner rooms, in which the entire family slept. There were no other apartments, the kitchen being an outhouse.
On the centre table was spread a substantial breakfast, from which the various members of the family had risen on the arrival of the hors.e.m.e.n.
Considine was introduced to Mynheer Marais' vrouw, a good-looking, fat, and motherly woman verging on forty,--and his daughter Bertha, a pretty little girl of eight or nine.
”What is Mynheer's name?” was the matron's first question.
Mynheer replied that it was Charles Considine.
”Was Mynheer English?”
”Yes,” Mynheer was proud to acknowledge the fact.
Mrs Marais followed up these questions with a host of others--such as, the age and profession of Mynheer, the number of his relatives, and the object of his visit to South Africa. Mynheer Marais himself, after getting a brief outline of his son's meeting with the Englishman, backed the attack of his pleasant-faced vrouw by putting a number of questions as to the political state of Europe then existing, and the chances of the British Government seriously taking into consideration the unsatisfactory condition of the Cape frontier and its relations with the Kafirs.
To all of these and a mult.i.tude of other questions Charlie Considine replied with great readiness and good-humour, as far as his knowledge enabled him, for he began quickly to appreciate the fact that these isolated farmers, who almost never saw a newspaper were thirsting for information as to the world in general as well as with regard to himself in particular.
During this bombardment of queries the host and hostess were not forgetful to supply their young guest with the viands under which the substantial table groaned, while several of the younger members of the family, including the pretty Bertha, stood behind the rest and waited on them. With the exception of the host and hostess, none of the household spoke during the meal, all being fully occupied in listening eagerly and eating heartily.
When the Dutch fire began to slacken for want of ammunition, Considine retaliated by opening a British battery, and soon learned that Marais and his wife both claimed, and were not a little proud of, a few drops of French blood. Their progenitors on the mother's side, they said, were descended from one of the French Huguenot families which settled in the colony after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.
”You see,” said Mynheer Marais, with a quiet smile of satisfaction, as he applied a boiled cob of mealies or Indian corn to his powerful teeth, ”our family may be said to be about two-thirds Dutch and one-third French. In fact, we have also a little English blood in our veins, for my great-grandfather's mother was English on the father's side and Dutch on the mother's. Perhaps this accounts to some extent for my tendency to adopt some English and American ideas in the improvement of my farm, which is not a characteristic of my Cape-Dutch brethren.”
”So I have been told, and to some extent have seen,” said Considine, with a sly glance; ”in fact they appear to be rather lazy than otherwise.”
”Not lazy, young sir,” returned Marais with some emphasis. ”They are easy-going and easily satisfied, and not solicitous to add to their material comforts beyond a certain point--in short, contented with little, like Frenchmen, which is a praiseworthy condition of mind, commended in Holy Writ, and not disposed to make haste to be rich, like you English.”
”Ah, I see,” rejoined Considine, who observed a twinkle in the eyes of some of Mynheer's stalwart sons.
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