The Globe-republican., 1890-08-27

dead in her coffin, with flowers in her
hand. Along the wall of the room were
arranged three little white beds, and on
each of the beds lay one of my brothers.
They all looked as though they were
asleep, and they all had flowers in their
hands. My father told me to kiss them
all, because 1 should not see them any
more, and l did so, though I was very
| frightened. did not know why. Then
he took me in his arms and kissed me.
THE Lord hath given" he said, land
the Lord hath taken away; blessed be
the name of the Lord"
l cried very much, and he took me
downstairs, and after that have only
confused memory of men dressed in
black carrying heavy burdens towards
the gray churchyard!
Next comes vision of great ship
and wide. tossing waters. My father
could no longer bear to live in England
after the loss that had fallen on him,
and made up his mind to emigrate to
South Africa. We must have been poor
at the time. indeed. l believe that
my father on my mothers death. At
any rate we travelled with the steerage
passengers, and the intense discomfort
of the journey, with the rough ways of
our fellow emigrants, still remains upon
my mind. At last it came to an end,
and we reached Africa, which 1 was not
to leave again for many, many years.
In those days civilization had not made
any great progress in Southern Africa.
My father went up the country and be-
came missionary among the kaffirs,
near to where the town OF Cradock now
stands, and here l grew to manhood.
There were few Boer farmers in the
neighborhood. and graduallya little set
Element of whites gathered around our
mission station. A drunken Scotch
blacksmith and wheelwright was about
the most interesting character who.
when he was sober, could quote the
Scottish poet Burns and the SIN
goldsby Legends" literally by the page
1t was from him that l contracted
fondneSs for the latter amusing writ
ings which has never left me. Burns
l never cared for so much, probably be-
cause of the Scottish dialect which re-
PEELED me. What little education got |
was from my father, but l never had |
much leaning toward books, nor he |
much time to teach them to me. On the |
other hand, 1 was always keen OBJ
server of the ways of men and nature. |
BY the time was twenty 1 could speak |
Dutch and three or four kaffir dialects |
perfectly, and doubt if there was any
body in South Africa who understood
native ways of thought and action more
than 1 did. Also I was
really very good shot and horseman,
and think-as, indeed, my subsequent
career proves to have been the casa
great deal tougher than the majority Of
men Though 1 was then, as now,
tire me. could bear any amount Of
exposure and privation, and never met
the native who was my master in feats
of endurance. OF course all that is diff
ferent now; am speaking of my early
manhood.
It may be wondered that did not run
absolutely wild in such Surroundings,
but 1 was held back from this by my IA
Tiers society. He was one of the
,entlest and most refined men that I
ever met; even the most savage Kafir
Owed him, and his influence WAS . very
yoQd one for me. He used to call him +:
ell one of the worlds failures. Would
hat there were more such failures! {
Every evening when his work was done I,
le would take his prayer-book, and, sit
ing on the little stoop of our station,
sould read the evening psalms to him
eli Sometimes there wss not light