m or
never allowing a pail to be upset, or losing a drop of the milk. They
had some pet animals which they had taught to feed out of their hands,
and which were consequently as tame and gentle with them as could be
desired, although they would allow no one else, with the exception of
Biddy, to approach them. They would come at their call, and allow
themselves to be milked with perfect docility. The contrast between
their cows and those tended by the Kaffirs was very great. The Kaffir
process of milking was barbarous in the extreme. The animal to be
operated on, being driven into the kraal, was made fast by the horns to
one of the posts. Her hind legs were then tied together, and the calf
was permitted to take a draught, when a Kaffir stood ready to haul him
aside, and the rest of the milk was yielded into the pail.

Biddy acted not only as cook for the family, but also for all the men on
the farm, who assembled in a hut close to the house, with a long table
in the centre, at which they sat in primitive fashion, the master taking
the head. The fare generally consisted of beef, game, meal cakes,
capital bread, pumpkins and other vegetables, and a variety of fruits;
among others, when they were in season, there were figs and
pomegranates, which grew in the greatest profusion on the farm. The
family generally retired at an early hour, and rose at dawn, when they
went about their respective avocations for a couple of hours before
breakfast. As soon as the cows were milked, they and the heifers and
calves were driven off to the pastures, while the ploughman yoked a span
of ten oxen to the plough, and set out to break up some new land, and
very hard work it was. Although the soil was tolerably rich, it was
baked by the sun, and as hard as a rock, and in some places the whole
strength of the oxen was required to draw the share through it. Two of
the labourers were employed in hoeing the young mealies, and, strange as
it may seem, others at the same time were engaged in picking off the
ripe cobs, stripping back their leafy covering, and hanging them in
pairs across rails, where they could further dry, until they were
carried to the granary. In the mealy fields, indeed, can be seen the
corn in all stages, some just rising above the ground, and the
full-grown stalks of others bending with the weight of their yellow
heads.

Crawford undertook all carpentry business, having, as he said, practised
the art when he made u