If Ratels Hoek was a creditable example of the better class of Dutch
farm, no less was its owner an excellent specimen of the better type of
Dutch farmer. Stephanus De la Rey was a tall, handsome man of about
fifty. He had a fine forehead, blue eyes, and straight, regular
features, and the masses of his full brown beard had hardly yet begun to
show threads of grey. His character was in keeping with his general
appearance, for though quiet-mannered, he was the most straight forward
and genial of men, and was immensely looked up to and respected far and
wide by such few English as the neighbourhood contained, no less than by
his own compatriots.

His wife was a bright, cheerful, brisk-mannered little woman, who, as we
have already heard it stated, was half English in that she had owned an
English mother. Their family consisted of a liberal eight, of which
those now at home represented the younger two of each sex.

Stephanus De la Rey was seated on his stoep, smoking a meditative pipe
and thinking deeply. He had just been reading the newspapers, and there
was enough in them at that time to give a thoughtful man plenty to think
about. His own sympathies were not unnaturally with the Transvaal,
where two of his sons had settled, and for its President he entertained
a very warm admiration. But he was no fiery patriot. War was a
terrible thing, and war between two white nations--two Christian
nations, in a land swarming with heathen barbarians--seemed to him
hardly justifiable under any circumstances whatever. Even if the worst
came to the worst, let the Republic fight its own battles. He and his
neighbours had no grievance against the English Government under which
they dwelt--save grievances which were purely sentimental and belonging
to ancient history; and as he gazed around upon his own prosperous lands
the gravity of his thoughts deepened. This was momentarily diverted by
the approach of two of his sons--who had just come in from the veldt--
tall, light-haired, quiet-looking youths of two- and three-and-twenty
respectively. They seemed to be under the influence of some unwonted
excitement.

"We heard some news to-day, Pa," said the elder of the two. "We are to
have a visitor to-night. Who do you think it is?"

"I cannot guess. Who is it?"

"The Patriot," burst forth the other. "_Ja_, that is good! I have
wanted so much to see him."

Both looked furtively at each other and then at their father. The