The Dickinson press. (Dickinson, Stark County, D.T. [i.e. N.D.]) 1883-1927, 1890-05-17

Gailo 1 AOltuO llluU lllC IullNGS, OF
the event, had taken the corpse and
thrown it to the vultures with every mark
of hate. Such, then, was the end of
Hendrika.
A week after Hendricks death l left
Babyan Kraals. The place was hateful
to me now; it was q haunted place.
sent for old lndaba-zimbi and told him
that was going. He answered that it
was well. "The place has served your
turn" he said; ''here you have won that
joy which it was fated you should win
and have suffered those things that it
was fated you should suffer. Yes, and
though you know it not now, the joy
and the suffering, like the sunshine and
the storm, are the same thing, and will
rest at last in the same heaven, the
heaven from which they came. Now
go, Macumazahn."
Iasked him if hewas coming with me.
"No," he answered, "our paths lie
apart hcnceforth, Macumazahn. We
met together for certain ends. Those
ends are fulfilled. Now each one goes
his own way. You have stG many years
before you, Macumzahn. a. years are
few. When VIC shake han Is here it will
be for the last time. Perhaps we may
meet again, but it will not be in this
world. Henceforth we have each of lis
friend the less"
"Heavy words" said.
"True words" he answered.
Well, have little heart to write of the
rest of it. went, leaving Indaba-zimb
i'll charge of the place, and making him
q present of such cattle and goods as l
did not want.
Tota, l of course took with me. For
tunately by this time she had almost re-
covered the shock to her nerves. The
baby Harry, as he was afterwards named,
was Il fine healthy child, and 1 was lucky
i'll getting q respectable native woman,
who's, husband had been killed in tho
fight with the balloons, to accompany me
;Ns his nurse.
Slowly, and followed for distance by
all the people, I trekked away from
Babyan Kraals. My route towards Natal
was along the edge of the bad lands, and
my first nights outspan was beneath
that very tree where Stella, my lost wife,
had found us as we lay dying of thirst.
did not sleep much that night. And
| yet was glad that I had not died in the
desert about eleven months before.
felt then, as from year to year have
continued to feel while wander through
the lonely wilderness of life, that have
been preserved to an end. l had won
my darling's love, and for little while
we had been happy together. Our hap
piness was too perfect to endure. She is
lost to me now, but she is lost to be
found again.
Here on the following morning I bade
farewell to Indaba-zimbi.
"Good-by, Macumazahn, j" he said, nod
ding his white lock at me. "Good-by
for a while. am not Christian; your
father could not make me that. But he
was wise man, and when he said that
those who love each other shall meet
again, lie did not lie. And 1 too am a
wise man i'll my way, Macumazalln; and
l say it is true that we shall meet again.
All my prophecies to you have come
true, Macumazahn, and this one shall
come true also. Itell you that you shall
return to Babyan Kraals and shall not
find me. Itell you that you shall journey
to further land than Babyan Kraals
and shall find me. FAREWELL" and he
took pinch of snuff, turned and went
OF my journey down to Natal there is
little to tell I met with many adven-
lures, but they We're of an every day
kind, and in the end arrived safely at
Port Durham, which now visited for
|
boy bore the journey well. And here
may as well chronicle the destiny OF
Tota. For year she remained under
my charge. Then she was adopted by
lady, the wife of an English colonel, who
was stationed at the Cape. She was
taken by her adopted parents to Eng.
land, where she grew wupa very charming
and pretty girl, and ultimately married
aclergyman in Norfolk. But never saw
her again, though wc often wrote to each
other.
Before 1 returned to the country of my
birth, she too had been gathered to the
land of shadows, leaving three children
behind her. All me! all this took place
so long ago, when was young who now
| am old.
Perhaps it may interest the reader to
know the fate of Mr.. Carson's property,
which should of course have gone to his
grandson Harry. wrote to England to
claim the estate on his behalf, but the
lawyer to whom the matter was sub
mitted said that my marriage to Stella,
not having been celebrated by an Or
dained priest, was not legal according to
English law, and therefore Harry could
not inherit. Foolishly enough I acqui.
esced in this, and the property passed to
cousin of my father-in laws; but since
l have come to live in England I have
been informed that this opinion is open
to great suspicion, and that there is
every probability that the courts would
have declared the marriage perfectly
binding as having been solemnly entered
| into in accordance with the custom of
the place where it was contracted. But
am now so rich that it is not worth
while to move in the matter. The cou.
sin is dead, his son is in possession, SO let
him keep it.
| Once. and once only, did I revisit
Babyan Kraals. Some fifteen years after
oSdlii, WiSAA 1 Hdo illttI
in middle life, undertook an expedi-
ton to the Zambesi, and one night out
| spanned at the mouth of the we'll known
valley beneath the shadow of the great
peak. l mounted my horse, and quite
alone rode up the valley, noticing with
strange prcscience of evil that the road
was overgrown, and, save for the music
| of the Waterfalls the place silent as
death. The kraals that used to be to the
left of the road by the river had van
ished. rode towards their site; the
mealie fields were choked with weeds,
the paths were dumb with grass. Pres
emily reached the place. There, over
grown with grass, were the burnt ashes
of the kraaIs, and there among the ashes,
cleaning in the moonlight, lay the white
bones of men. Now it was clear to me-
| 'rIo attl.mant boI boop fn11an ~, l,,,