Besides, he felt specially obliged, in many ways, to Stephanus Groblaar, and therefore would have sacrificed a good deal to be his friend.
But a new instinct had been roused in his nature by those parting words of Santa. The first seeds of suspicion were sown in that generous soil. This seed would grow until it destroyed the unwise trust of boyhood, and make of him a vigilant and discriminating man in the future. Truly he had left adolescence behind him when his horse walked under the shady oak avenues of Stellenbosch.
Nothing occurred, however, to mar their harmony as they moved slowly upward through the populated portions of Cape Colony.
Day after day went along with varying incidents and amusements. When they were able they spent the night at some friendly settler’s homestead, and were most hospitably welcomed and entertained. These were, without exception, Dutch farmers, and old friends of the Groblaars, so that they saw little enough of the British members of the community.
They had mastered enough of the Cape Dutch and “Kitchen Kaffir” idioms to understand what was said, as well as express themselves to be understood by those they were so constantly thrown amongst by this time. As every one was alike free and kind, if a bit rough and homely, they took the most favourable impression possible of this industrious if slow-going and bigoted race.
It was not nice to hear Englishmen so constantly spoken about with such contempt as a nation of cowards and oppressors; yet as the Boers gave their opinions good-naturedly, and exhibited such an utter want of knowledge in their statements, the lads could not help laughing also as they listened.
The farther up they travelled the more crassly ignorant and prejudiced they found their hosts to be; yet, although they universally insulted and tried to bespatter the Union Jack, they universally made their English guests as heartily welcome as were their Dutch friends. The rites of hospitality were most generously observed. It was not that these Dutch Africanders were all uncouth and ignorant men and women. The majority of them were as well and even more highly educated than are these classes in England. A large proportion of them had likewise travelled and seen England and the Continent. It seemed the fashion to be prejudiced against England. They had taken their preconceived notions along with them wherever they went, accepting only such evidences and historical facts as suited their own side of the disputed question. “The English are a nation of liars, and don’t know much about anything useful. They are no use anywhere, and they are almost done for.”
This was the universal opinion of the Dutch natives of Africa, and no argument could move them one iota. They all spoke banteringly and with good-tempered irony, as one might speak of something settled and past curing or dispute. They despised the English as a nation, abhorred Cecil Rhodes, and laughed at Gladstone as a friendly old imbecile. But they did not object to individuals.
The boys listened and laughed with their bigoted but generous friends, and took all this talk in the same good part.