earance and the aristocratic "drawl" affected by him. American
darkies say, "Dere's some folk dat is slow but shua, and some dar is
dat's _jes' slow!_" Well, Gentleman Jim was "jes' slow." He was the
only one on the premises who steadfastly refused to speak one word of
Dutch, although he perfectly understood everything said to him.

The result was that the dialogues carried on between mistresses and
servant were in Dutch on one side and in English on the other, it
being one of the rules at Harmony to address all natives either in
their own tongue or in Dutch, never in English.

I may say here that even at the present time it is customary with many
Dutch South Africans to employ no English-speaking natives, but rather
to engage the "raw" material, i.e. those speaking neither Dutch nor
English, because they are, in nine cases out of ten, still unspoilt by
civilisation and have lost none of the awe and respect with which
they, in their native state, regard the white man.

Gentleman Jim was the only exception ever known at Harmony, and there
was no lack of respect in _his_ manner; on the contrary, the flourish
with which he took off his hat and his slow and dignified, "Good
morning, little missie," were well worth seeing and a constant source
of amusement to all.

Paulus, that magnificent specimen of manhood in its natural state, was
by no means the least remarkable of the trio, and there was something
tragic too about his rugged personality.

He had been taken by the English in the neighbourhood of Pretoria and
brought into town on the false suspicion of having been employed by
the Boers as a spy.

There being nothing found against him in proof of this, he was set
free in town and allowed to seek employment, but, though he pleaded
hard, he could not obtain permission to return to his home, where wife
and children had been left in complete uncertainty as to his fate.

This native was a converted heathen, semi-civilised, but with the
noblest instincts within him developed on natural lines to a
remarkable degree. I have often longed to meet the missionary in whose
hands the moulding of this rare product of nature had been carried out
with so much success. Patience, faith, devotion, and an awe amounting
to veneration for his white mistresses were among the most striking
qualities Paulus possessed.

There were hundreds of his stamp on the farms all over the country,
natives brought up by the Dutch farmers and trained a