was a
well-to-do bachelor, alone in the world, and he invited my mother to
live with him and take care of his house. For myself he proposed a
post in some mercantile concern, for he had much influence in the
circles of commerce. There was nothing for it but to accept
gratefully. We sold our few household goods, and moved to his gloomy
house in Dundas Street. A few days later he announced at dinner that
he had found for me a chance which might lead to better things.

'You see, Davie,' he explained, 'you don't know the rudiments of
business life. There's no house in the country that would take you in
except as a common clerk, and you would never earn much more than a
hundred pounds a year all your days. If you want to better your future
you must go abroad, where white men are at a premium. By the mercy of
Providence I met yesterday an old friend, Thomas Mackenzie, who was
seeing his lawyer about an estate he is bidding for. He is the head of
one of the biggest trading and shipping concerns in the
world--Mackenzie, Mure, and Oldmeadows--you may have heard the name.
Among other things he has half the stores in South Africa, where they
sell everything from Bibles to fish-hooks. Apparently they like men
from home to manage the stores, and to make a long story short, when I
put your case to him, he promised you a place. I had a wire from him
this morning confirming the offer. You are to be assistant storekeeper
at--' (my uncle fumbled in his pocket, and then read from the yellow
slip) 'at Blaauwildebeestefontein. There's a mouthful for you.'

In this homely way I first heard of a place which was to be the theatre
of so many strange doings.

'It's a fine chance for you,' my uncle continued. 'You'll only be
assistant at first, but when you have learned your job you'll have a
store of your own. Mackenzie's people will pay you three hundred
pounds a year, and when you get a store you'll get a percentage on
sales. It lies with you to open up new trade among the natives. I
hear that Blaauw--something or other, is in the far north of the
Transvaal, and I see from the map that it is in a wild, hilly country.
You may find gold or diamonds up there, and come back and buy
Portincross House.' My uncle rubbed his hands and smiled cheerily.

Truth to tell I was both pleased and sad. If a learned profession was
denied me I vastly preferred a veld store to an Edinburgh office stool.
Had I not been still under the shadow