leared out, the hind curtain fastened, and
so forth. Also the pole was propped up with an ox-yoke so as to make the
vehicle level to lie in. While I was wondering vaguely who could have
done this, Hans climbed on to the step, carrying two karosses which he
had borrowed or stolen, and asked if I was comfortable.

"Oh, yes!" I answered; "but why were you going to sleep in the cart?"

"Baas," he replied, "I was not; I prepared it for you. How did I know
that you were coming? Oh, very simply. I sat on the stoep and listened
to all the talk in the sitkammer. The window has never been mended,
baas, since the Quabies broke it. God in Heaven! what a talk that was.
I never knew that white people could have so much to say about a simple
matter. You want to marry the Baas Marais's daughter; the baas wants her
to marry another man who can pay more cattle. Well, among us it would
soon have been settled, for the father would have taken a stick and
beaten you out of the hut with the thick end. Then he would have beaten
the girl with the thin end until she promised to take the other man, and
all would have been settled nicely. But you Whites, you talk and talk,
and nothing is settled. You still mean to marry the daughter, and the
daughter still means not to marry the man of many cows. Moreover, the
father has really gained nothing except a sick heart and much bad luck
to come."

"Why much bad luck to come, Hans?" I asked idly, for his naive summing
up of the case interested me in a vague way.

"Oh! Baas Allan, for two reasons. First, your reverend father, who made
me true Christian, told him so, and a predicant so good as he, is one
down whom the curse of God runs from Heaven like lightning runs down a
tree. Well, the Heer Marais was sitting under that tree, and we all know
what happens to him who is under a tree when the lightning strikes it.
That my first Christian reason. My second black-man reason, about which
there can be no mistake, for it has always been true since there was a
black man, is that the girl is yours by blood. You saved her life with
your blood," and he pointed to my leg, "and therefore bought her for
ever, for blood is more than cattle. Therefore, too, he who would divide
her from you brings blood on her and on the other man who tries to steal
her, blood, blood! and on himself I know not what." And he waved his
yellow arms, staring up at me with his little black eyes in a way that
was most uncanny.

"Nonsense!