Every now and then a great red spider would start out of the
karoo on one side of the path and run across to the other, but nothing else
broke the still monotony. Presently, behind one of the highest of the
milk-bushes that dotted the roadside, the German caught sight of a Kaffer
woman, seated there evidently for such shadow as the milk-bush might afford
from the sloping rays of the sun.
The German turned the horse's head out of the road. It was not his way to
pass a living creature without a word of greeting. Coming nearer, he found
it was no other than the wife of the absconding Kaffer herd. She had a
baby tied on her back by a dirty strip of red blanket; another strip hardly
larger was twisted round her waist, for the rest her black body was naked.
She was a sullen, ill-looking woman with lips hideously protruding.
The German questioned her as to how she came there. She muttered in broken
Dutch that she had been turned away. Had she done evil? She shook her
head sullenly. Had she had food given her? She grunted a negative, and
fanned the flies from her baby. Telling the woman to remain where she was,
he turned his horse's head to the road and rode off at a furious pace.
"Hard-hearted! cruel! Oh, my God! Is this the way? Is this charity?"
"Yes, yes, yes," ejaculated the old man as he rode on; but, presently, his
anger began to evaporate, his horse's pace slackened, and by the time he
had reached his own door he was nodding and smiling.
Pages:
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96