The Settler and the Savage | Page 5

torment. It
is true we shot plenty of game--lions among the rest--but in camp the
man was so unbearable that disgust counterbalanced all the pleasure of
the trip. I tried hard to get the better of him by good-humour and jollity,
but he became so insolent at last that I could not stand it. Three days
ago when I asked him how far we were from his farm, he growled that
it wasn't far off now; whereupon I could not refrain from saying that I
was glad to hear it, as we should soon have the pleasure of parting
company. This put him in a rage. He kicked over the pot containing
part of our breakfast, and told me I might part company then and there
if I pleased. My temper does not easily go, but it went at last. I jumped
up, saddled my horse, mounted, and rode away. Of course I lost myself
immediately, and for two days have been trying to find myself, without

success, mourning over my fate and folly, and fasting from necessity.
But for my opportune meeting with you, Mr Marais, it might have gone
hard with me and my poor horse, for the want of water had well-nigh
floored us both."
"You'll never make your fortune by doctoring on the frontier," said
Hans, after a few minutes' silence. "Nobody gets ill in this splendid
climate--besides, we couldn't afford to waste time in that way. People
here usually live to a great age, and then go off without the assistance
of a doctor. What else can you turn your hand to?"
"Anything," replied Considine, with the overweening confidence of
youth.
"Which means nothing, I suspect," said the Dutchman, "for
Jack-of-all-trades is proverbially master of none."
"It may be so," retorted the other, "nevertheless, without boasting, I
may venture to assert--because I can prove it--that I am able to make
tables, chairs, chests, and such-like things, besides knowing something
of the blacksmith's trade. In regard to doctoring, I am not entitled to
practise for fees, not yet being full-fledged--only a third-year
student--but I may do a little in that way for love, you know. If you
have a leg, for instance, that wants amputating, I can manage it for you
with a good carving-knife and a cross-cut saw. Or, should a grinder
give you annoyance, any sort of pincers, small enough to enter your
mouth, will enable me to relieve you."
At this Hans smiled and displayed a set of brilliant "grinders," which
did not appear likely to give him annoyance for some time to come.
"Can you shoot?" asked Hans, laying his hand on his companion's
double-barrelled gun, which lay on the ground between them, and
which, with its delicate proportions and percussion-locks, formed a
striking contrast to the battered, heavy, flint-lock weapon of the
Dutchman.
"Ay, to some extent, as the lions' skins in Jan Smit's waggon can

testify.--By the way," added Considine quickly, "you said that you
knew Smit. Can you tell me where he lives? because I still owe him the
half of the money promised for permission to accompany him on this
trip, and should not like to remain his debtor."
"Ja, I know where he lives. He's a bad specimen of a Dutch farmer in
every respect, except as to size. He lives quite close to our farm--
more's the pity!--and is one of those men who do their best to keep up
bad feeling between the frontier-men and the Kafirs. The evil deeds of
men such as he are represented in England, by designing or foolish
persons, as being characteristic of the whole class of frontier farmers,
hence we are regarded as a savage set, while, in my humble opinion,
we are no worse than the people of other colonies placed in similar
circumstances--perhaps better than some of them. Do you know
anything of our past history?"
"Not much," replied Considine, throwing away the remnant of the stick
he had been whittling, and commencing on another piece. "Of course I
know that the Cape was first doubled by the Portuguese commander
Bartholomew Diaz in, I think, 1486, and after him by Vasco de Gama,
and that the Dutch formed the first settlement on it under Van Riebeek
in 1652, but beyond this my knowledge of Cape history and dates is
hazy and confused. I know, however, that your forefathers mismanaged
the country for about a century and a half, after which it finally came
into possession of the British in 1806."
"Humph!" ejaculated Hans, while a shade of displeasure flitted for a
moment across his broad visage. "'Tis a pity your reading had not
extended farther, for then you would have learned that from 1806 the
colony has been mismanaged by your countrymen, and the last fruit of
their mismanagement