le
while after I asked him again what the work was to be.

"'Making bricks,' he answered. 'Here we have the spruit at
our door and mud for the picking up. It needs only a box-
mould or two, and it will be funny if I can't turn out as
many good bricks in a day as three lazy Kafirs. Old Pagan,
the contractor, has said he will buy them, so now it only
remains to get to work.'

"As he said this, I noticed the uneasiness that kept him
from meeting my eye, for in truth it was a sorry employ to
put his strength to,--a dirty toil, all the dirtier for the
fact that only Kafirs handled it in Dopfontein, and the pay
was poor. From our door one could always see the brick-
making going on along the spruit, with the mud-streaked
niggers standing knee-deep in the water, packing the wet
dirt into the boxes, and spilling them out to be baked in
the sun or fired, as the case might be. There was too much
grime and discomfort to it to be a respectable trade.

"But Kornel went to work at once, carrying down box-moulds
from the contractor's yard, and stacking them in the stiff
gray mud at the edge of the spruit, I went with him to see
him start. He waded down over his boots, into the slow
water, and plunged his arms elbow-deep into the mud.

"'Here's to an honest living,' he said, and lilted a great
lump of slime into the first box and kneaded it close.
Then, as he set it aside and reached for the next, he
looked up to me with a smile that was all awry. My heart
bled for him.

"'But there's no time to be polite,' he said, as the mud
squelched into the second box. 'Here's the time to prove
how a white man can work when he goes about it. So run back
to the house, my kleintje, and leave me to make my
fortune.'

"And forthwith he braced himself and went at that sorry
work with all his fine strength. I had not the heart to
stay by him; I knew that my eyes upon him were like
offering him an insult, and yet I never looked at him save
in love. But once or twice I glanced from the doorway, and
saw him bowed still over that ruthless task, slaving
doggedly, as good men do with good work.

"When the evening meal was due he came in, drenched from
head to foot, and patched and lathered with the pale sticky
mud; but though he was so tired that he drooped like a sick
man where he stood, his face was bright again and his eyes
were once more a-twinkle with hope and confidence.

"As he changed his clothes and washed himself, he talked
cheerily