. You know, my father is just wild on getting up
a garden here. It occupies his time nearly the whole day long."

"And very well he has done with it hitherto, Miss Sewin," I answered
heartily. "It is a pleasure to see it. You know, we rough knockabouts
haven't much time for that sort of thing. But we appreciate it, or its
results, all the more when we see them."

"But don't you ever feel inclined to make things bright and pretty about
your place?" she went on. "I should have thought you could have managed
to find an hour or two a day. Or are you always so very busy up there?"

I felt guilty, as I remembered how I was prevented, not by lack of time
but inclination: my spare time being occupied mainly by taking it easy,
and smoking pipes and chatting with any chance natives who happened
along; or it might be, sneaking about in the thick bushy kloofs to get a
shot at a buck. But I answered, somewhat lamely:

"Oh, as to that, it isn't exactly a matter of time. The fact is, Miss
Sewin, we get into certain habits of life, and can't get out of them in
a hurry. I suppose a knockabout like myself gets all the taste for the
fine arts knocked out of him. And the art of laying out gardens is one
of the fine arts."

She looked at me, I thought, with something of interest in her wide
eyes. Then she said:

"Ah, but, you knockabouts--your own word remember, Mr Glanton--" she
interjected, with a smile, "are, or ought to be, among the most useful
men a country like this can produce. You are constantly in touch with
the savages by whom we are surrounded. You know their ways and their
thoughts and all about them, and your knowledge cannot but be invaluable
to your fellow-countrymen."

I felt pleased. She had a way of what I will call for want of a better
expression--smoothing you down the right way. I said:

"But these savages, Miss Sewin. Believe me, they are not half bad
fellows at bottom if you take them the right way. You haven't got to go
very far down to find them so, either."

"And we take them the wrong way, isn't that what you mean?" she
answered, with another of her somewhat disturbing smiles. "I believe
you are quite right--in fact I know you are--and I am always saying so.
But, here are the others. I hope you will keep on telling them the same
thing, over and over again until they see it themselves, if it isn't too
late."

"I will. But you? You yourself. Don't you find this rough country and
r