One night old Sara brought news.
Poppy's box was being packed. In two days she was going to be sent away in the post-cart. Poppy thrilled with joy, and had no foreboding until next day when she overheard Clara and Emily whispering together in the yard. It transpired that though they envied Poppy the journey to Boshof in the post-cart, they did not envy her subsequent career under the protection of their mother's sister, Aunt Clara Smit.
"Do you remember that time ma sent us there when Ina had the diphtheria? We never got anything but bread and dripping, and she was eating chops and steaks all the time."
"Yes," said Clara, "and remember how she used to beat Katzi, the little Hottentot girl, in bed every night for a week until the blood came, just because she broke a cup."
"Ha! ha!" they chirruped, "won't Miss Poppy get it just!"
"Yes, and mammer's going to give her something before she goes, too. She sent me to buy a sjambok this morning, because pa's hidden his away, and when he's gone out to the 'Phœnix' to-night, she's going to have Poppy across the bed in front of her. You're to hold her head and me her feet."
"Tlk! Won't she get it!"
This interesting piece of news determined Poppy on a matter which had long been simmering in her mind. She decided at last that she would take no more beatings from Aunt Lena, and neither would she sample the quality of Aunt Clara Smit's charity. She would run away.
All that afternoon she lay turning the matter over, and later she took old Sara into her confidence for two reasons: old Sara must commandeer some food for her, and must also get for her the only thing she wanted to take away with her—a round green stone brooch which had belonged to her mother, and which Aunt Lena kept in her top drawer.