have saved my life, for I need hardly tell
you that to be taken ill in a place like this is apt to turn out no
joke."

"Well, you were in a baddish way, certainly," interrupted the other,
rather hurriedly. "And now, look here. I'm not much of a doctor, but I
seem to have a pretty strong notion that when a fellow's feverish the
best thing he can do is to keep as quiet as possible. Which, done into
plain English, means that you've talked quite enough, and you'd better
turn over and try to go to sleep again."

"I believe you're right," said Renshaw, for he was beginning to feel bad
again. "But first of all oblige me by going to the door and shouting
`Dirk!'"

Sellon complied, and, in obedience to the call, the old goatherd came
trotting up. A grin of satisfaction puckered up his parchment visage as
he saw his master so much better and able to talk rationally again.

"Dirk," said the latter, when the Koranna's cheery congratulations were
exhausted, "you keep the goats near, round the house to-day, so as to be
within call--it wouldn't make much difference if they stayed in the
kraal for all the poor brutes find to eat in the veldt--however, I
suppose they find something. What have you done with the stranger Baas'
horse?"

"He's in the stable, Baas."

"All right. See that he's well fed--luckily we have plenty of mealies.
And there are a few bundles of oat-hay left. Let him have them, Dirk."

"Ja, Baas. That shall be done."

"And tell Kaatje to see that the stranger Baas has everything he wants--
as far as the resources of the establishment will permit," added Renshaw
in English, turning to his guest with a rueful smile. "I've been
telling old Dirk to see that you have everything you want, so be sure
you keep him up to the mark, and see that you get it. He can grind out
a few words of English, and his wife a few more, so you'll be able to
make them understand. And now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll lie
quiet a little, for I'm feeling most confoundedly played out."

"My dear fellow--certainly, certainly. I think you've been talking far
too much already," answered Sellon, effusively. "It's awfully good of
you to think about me, but don't bother yourself on my account."

His unfamiliarity with the Boer dialect--the habitual medium of speech
between Cape colonists and natives--had left him necessarily ignorant of
his host's solicitude on his behalf, as conveyed in the foregoing
instructions. Renshaw