g fast, and when I could find a place to lie
down in, I had all I wanted. After I had driven eight months a rainy
season came. For eighteen hours out of the twenty-four we worked in
the wet. The mud went up to the axles sometimes, and we had to dig the
wheels out, and we never went far in a day. My master swore at me more
than ever, but when he had done he always offered me his brandy-flask.
When I first came he had offered it me, and I had always refused; but
now I drank as my oxen did when I gave them water--without thinking. At
last I bought brandy for myself whenever we passed an hotel.

"One Sunday we outspanned on the banks of a swollen river to wait for
its going down. It was drizzling still, so I lay under the wagon on the
mud. There was no dry place anywhere; and all the dung was wet, so there
was no fire to cook food. My little flask was filled with brandy, and I
drank some and went to sleep. When I woke it was drizzling still, so
I drank some more. I was stiff and cold; and my master, who lay by me,
offered me his flask, because mine was empty. I drank some, and then I
thought I would go and see if the river was going down. I remember that
I walked to the road, and it seemed to be going away from me. When I
woke up I was lying by a little bush on the bank of the river. It was
afternoon; all the clouds had gone, and the sky was deep blue. The
Bushman boy was grilling ribs at the fire. He looked at me and grinned
from ear to ear. 'Master was a little nice,' he said, 'and lay down in
the road. Something might ride over master, so I carried him there.' He
grinned at me again. It was as though he said, 'You and I are comrades.
I have lain in a road, too. I know all about it.'

"When I turned my head from him I saw the earth, so pure after the
rain, so green, so fresh, so blue; and I was a drunken carrier, whom his
leader had picked up in the mud, and laid at the roadside to sleep out
his drink. I remember my old life, and I remember you. I saw how,
one day, you would read in the papers: 'A German carrier, named Waldo
Farber, was killed through falling from his wagon, being instantly
crushed under the wheel. Deceased was supposed to have been drunk at the
time of the accident.' There are those notices in the paper every month.
I sat up, and I took the brandy-flask out of my pocket, and I flung it
as far as I could into the dark water. The Hottentot boy ran down to see
if he could catch it; it had sunk to the bottom