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Title: Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases
Seventeen Short Stories

Author: Perceval Gibbon

Release Date: January 14, 2007 [EBook #20355]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK VROUW GROBELAAR ***

Produced by Charles Klingman

VROUW GROBELAAR

AND HER LEADING CASES

SEVENTEEN SHORT STORIES

BY

PERCEVAL GIBBON

AUTHOR OF SOULS IN BONDAGE

NEW YORK
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.
MCMVI

Copyright, 1906, by
McCLURE, PHILLIPS & CO.

Published, January, 1906

TO MY WIFE

CONTENTS

UNTO THE THIRD GENERATION

THE DREAM-FACE

THE AVENGER OF BLOOD

THE HANDS OF THE PITIFUL WOMAN

PIET NAUDE'S TREK

LIKE UNTO LIKE

COUNTING THE COLORS

THE KING OF THE BABOONS

MORDER DRIFT

A GOOD END

VASCO'S SWEETHEART

THE PERUVIAN

TAGALASH

THE HOME KRAAL

THE SACRIFICE

THE COWARD

HER OWN STORY

UNTO THE THIRD GENERATION

The Vrouw Grobelaar, you must know, is a lady of excellent
standing, as much by reason of family connections (for she
was a Viljoen of the older stock herself, and buried in her
time three husbands of estimable parentage) as of her
wealth. Her farms extended from the Ringkop on the one side
to the Holgaatspruit on the other, which is more than a
day's ride; and her stock appears to be of that ideal
species which does not take rinderpest. Her Kafirs were
born on the place, and will surely die there, for though
the old lady is firmly convinced that she rules them with a
rod of iron, the truth is she spoils them atrociously; and
were it not that there is an excellent headman to her
kraals, the niggers would soon grow pot-bellied in
idleness.

The Vrouw Grobelaar is a lady who commands respect. Her
face is a portentous mask of solemnity, and her figure is
spacious beyond the average of Dutch ladies, so that
certain chairs are tacitly conceded her as a monopoly. The
good Vrouw does not read or write, and having never found a
need in herself for these arts, is the least thing
impatient of those who practice them. The Psalms, however,
she appears to know by heart