There must be a beauty in buying and selling, if there
is beauty in everything: but it is very ugly to me. My life as transport-
rider would have been the best life in the world if I had had only one
wagon to drive. My master told me he would drive one, I the other, and he
would hire another person to drive the third. But the first day I drove
two to help him, and after that he let me drive all three. Whenever we
came to an hotel he stopped behind to get a drink, and when he rode up to
the wagons he could never stand; the Hottentot and I used to lift him up.
We always travelled all night, and used to outspan for five or six hours in
the heat of the day to rest. I planned that I would lie under a wagon and
read for an hour or two every day before I went to sleep, and I did for the
first two or three; but after that I only wanted to sleep, like the rest,
and I packed my books away.
"When you have three wagons to look after all night, you are sometimes so
tired you can hardly stand. At first when I walked along driving my wagons
in the night it was glorious; the stars had never looked so beautiful to
me; and on the dark nights when we rode through the bush there were will-
o'-the-wisps dancing on each side of the road. I found out that even the
damp and dark are beautiful. But I soon changed, and saw nothing but the
road and my oxen.
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