With Roberts to Pretoria: A Tale of The South African War

by G. A. Henty

"No, it was not. She was surprised, of course, but I am sure that she will make you comfortable. My wife is a good woman, a very good woman; but, you see, she is Dutch, and she does not take to new ideas suddenly. I have no doubt she will be just as pleased as I am at your coming, when she gets to know you, and will feel that, having no children of our own, you will be a great acquisition, and brighten us up very much. There is one thing I must warn you about: she is prejudiced, I must admit that. You see, almost all the people round us are Dutch, and of late there has been what I may call a nasty feeling among them. There is an association called the Africander Bond, and its object, as far as I can see, is to establish the supremacy of the Dutch in Africa. It is doing a lot of harm. Until a short time back, the English and Dutch got on very well together, and as far as supremacy goes, the greater part of the members of the assembly were Dutch, and almost all the officials. We did not mind that. No doubt the colony would have gone ahead a good deal faster if our people had had more voice in affairs, for it cannot be denied that the Dutch hate changes of any kind, and would like the world to stand still. A Dutchman would still rather travel in his lumbering waggon, and take a week over it, than make a railway journey of a few hours. That gives you a fair sample of their dislike to change. Of course I am accustomed to these things, and keep quiet when my neighbours come in and set to work talking over affairs, and discussing the possibility of a great Dutch Republic over the whole of South Africa. It does not worry me. I know well enough that England will never let them have it; but I don't tell them so. I like peace and quiet, and I say nothing; and you must say nothing, Yorke. That is the one thing that I have to impress upon you. Never argue with my wife on that subject. She is a good woman, but, naturally enough, being Dutch, she thinks as her countrymen do. That is the one rock ahead; if you steer clear of that, we shall get on capitally."

By this time they were seated in a large room at the store eating their lunch, while a Kaffir boy was squatting near the four horses, which were munching mealies. Mr. Allnutt had come out a young man to the Cape thirty years before. He was of an easy disposition, and did not succeed; he was therefore glad to obtain employment on the farm of a large Dutch farmer. The latter had an only child, a daughter of sixteen years old, who, before the good-looking young Englishman had been there many months, fell in love with him, and announced to her father her intention of marrying him. The old man raved and stormed, shut her up for a time, and even threatened to beat her. Finding that she was still obstinate, he sent her for two years to a school in Cape Town. This had no effect whatever. She returned with very enlarged ideas as to the decencies of living, and wanted, as he said, to turn the house upside down. Finding it impossible to bend her to his will, he gave in. She had kept up a correspondence with Allnutt, who had, of course, been discharged as soon as the farmer had discovered his daughter's fancy for him.

He had not been insensible to the advantages of the position. Her father owned large numbers of cattle and horses, and an extensive tract of land watered by a stream that, except at very dry seasons, was always full. He had been working at a farm near Colesberg, and on the receipt of a letter from her announcing that her father was willing to sanction the match he at once returned and married her. A year later her father died, to Allnutt's great relief, and his wife at once set to work to transmogrify the interior of the house, and to equip it in the fashion which she had learned to value at the Cape.

The great stove which had before been in use was removed and replaced by an open fire, and the room fitted with carpets and English furniture. The upstairs rooms were similarly altered and furnished, curtains were hung at all the windows, and though outside the house retained the appearance of an ordinary Boer homestead, the interior had the appearance of the house of a well-to-do British colonist. Once a year Mrs. Allnutt and her husband had gone down to Cape Town, and remained there for a month; this had kept her in touch with civilization. Out of doors the farm was managed entirely by her husband, but inside the house she was absolute mistress.

After giving the horses an hour's rest, Mr. Allnutt and Yorke started in a Cape cart, the Kaffir taking the reins, while they sat on the seat behind him. Mr. Allnutt chatted pleasantly as they drove, and although the road crossed the veldt, it was not uninteresting.

Yorke was surprised when the farmer pointed to a house on a low nek between two hills and said, "That is my place, Yorke. It is two miles away yet, but I am on my own ground now. Roughly, the farm contains nearly six square miles of level ground and two of hill; it is worth a good deal more than when I took it. I saw that if it had water it would support three times as many cattle as there were on it, and I dammed the stream up in the hills and brought water down, and have irrigated three or four hundred acres. It took a lot of work, but Kaffir labour is cheap. I cut the grass twice and make hay of it; six months in the year I let the cattle feed on it, and it has fully answered my expectations, and every year repays me all the expense of carrying the job out. The Dutch farmers around come here and admire, and envy the green pasture when their own is burnt up, but though they see the advantage well enough, there is not one of them has attempted to imitate it."

"It must have been a big job fencing it in," Yorke said.

"Yes; I could not do that the first year, but the aloes and prickly-pear of which it is made grow very quickly. The farm itself is enclosed by barbed-wire fencing. The law obliges every settler to fence his land."

As they drove up to the door Mrs. Allnutt came out. Her two years at Cape Town and her subsequent visits there had prevented her from falling into the loose and slovenly way of the ordinary Boer farmer's wife. She was a large woman and somewhat stout, but her dress was neat and well-fitting. She had a strong but not unpleasant face, and welcomed Yorke with more geniality than he expected.

"You are welcome," she said. "It is a long journey for you to have made alone. Were you sent out here, or did you come at your own wish?"