The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1897-03-14

win her.
He listened, smoking, and not inter-
rupting. Then as I finished, he shook
his head and said, not unkindly: I'm
afraid it won't do, lad. BY your own
account you've been wandering about
the world, come-day, go-day fashion,
with sometimes few pounds in pocket
and more times nothing. Now, s'pose
l let you have Mary, how am l to know
that as soon as l am gone that wild
strain won't show UP again, and make
you shift your hurdles till everything's
frittered away? No; you're only
stranger yet-great as the service
you've done us-and Mary's all I've got
and l mean to take care OF her. But"
he continued, after a pause, during
which 1 kept silence and strove to hide
my chagrin at the exact business of his
remarks, IF you honestly think you
can steady down--why L must admit
that 1 like what I've seen of you very
we'll and there's the place over at
Ermelo, you can manage that for me.
can't always be running back ards
and for'ards. I'll give you a hundred
a year and found, and after bit, why,
Wen see. L don't think I can say
fairer just now
This was, in reality, more. in every
way, than 1 had any right to expect
was, in fact, very handsome offer.
But l was in q terrible hurry 10 make
Mary my own at once and the very
idea of such a humdrum sort of wait
ing vexed my Utmost soul.
Still 1 had the grace to thank him.
But I'm afraid not very heartily; for
he said, with twinkle in his eye, "Ay,
lad, L was young once myself and as
hot blooded, and strong and impatient,
but at long and last / had to calm
down. And a man can't rush his pile.
You might trek away-Q had mention
ed my notion of trying the new field)-
t'other side of Mashoniland and pros
pect for years and years, and return,
If ever you returned, a lot poorer'n you
started. The steady, constant workers
the one that gets home first, after alPS
said and done. I've found that OUT
All at once, as he finished, there
flashed through me, like a mild shock
from an electric battery, the old warn
ing feeling that now or never was the
time TO look up my Kaffir. And, TAX
ing the risk of being laughed at, l told
Johnston the whole story.
Terrible romancers, Kaffirs," COM
mented he as 1 finished. And some of
them would play practical joke like
that with their last breath. And there's
one tribe that makes a practice of al
ways cutting their dead open after
death to let the spirit escape. Your
friend may have had that notion in
his cunning old head. Of course he pos
CT,
doubt it. Ay, there was a big tree,
recollect, growing right in front of my
house. l grubbed it to make more
room in the garden. About three or
four hundred yards from the koppie?
Why, that'll be slap in the middle of
Mary's flower beds. You'll have to talk
that matter over with her." And he
laughed as he added, Never mind your
kaffir. Think over the offer l have
made you just now. Take your time.
And you'll get more by Ermelo farm
than ever you will by roofing up poor
Mary's flowers" And the old man
laughed again as he went off to his
room.
Next morning at breakfast the sub
ject cropped up again. Old Johnston
had been thinking, and had made up
his mind that the outermost branches
of the tree would have just covered the
lily plot, Mary's especial pride.
This, / believe, was meant purely as
a joke on his side.
But Mary who had been eagerly lis
tening, at once insisted on a thorough
search being made. Much more Won
derful things, she vowed, had happened
Did we think that because the poor
kaffir was black he was therefore de-
void of all gratitude? And dig 1 must
And if I didn't, she would. Lilies! What
were they compared to diamonds the
size of mealie-ears-and bigger And
she thought, too, that 1 was right aud
her father mistaken, for she remem-
bered seeing a great stump once where
the summer house now stood when she
came out from Ermelo, quite little
girl, shortly after old Johann Weenen
sold the farm. So, partly to please my
mistress, and partly to set at rest for
ever that indescribable monitor spoken
of so many times in this history, l dug
in the bed of great lilies, dug them all
up till they lay in rows of bruised and
shattered loneliness on each side of the
deep wide trench 1 made in the soft
mold with my trouble for my pains.
Fain would l then have desisted, but
Mary would have me explore the floor
of the little summer house in which
only last night we had talked of love.
So, to please her this time wholly, /
dug in a half hearted fashion. and old
Johnston, laughing at the madness of
the thing, went inside, followed pres
emily by Mary, to get can of beer for
her workman.
Three feet down in the stiff blue clay
I came across something that made me
ply my pick and shovel frantically.
And by the time Mary and her father
returned I was almost out of sight in
q deep hole that nearly took in the
whole floor.
Good Lord," laughed Johnston, you
surely never planted him as deep as
that"
mo" 7 answered, popping up. Il
can't find him, unless, indeed, his bones
have turned into this stuff" handing
him. as 1 spoke, half a dozen speci-
mems in which one had to look very
closely to see the quartZ-so thick was
the gold
The old man whistled loud and long,
as he fingered them lovingly, and
scarcely able to believe his eyesight.
80 it's here" ne exclaimed at last,
the lost lead runs they've been trying
to trace from the Rand. Well, who'd
have dreamt such a thing? No farm
ing row, / suppose. Eth, lad? Why,
it's a regular jewellers shop! And
looks like dipping into the horse-pad-
dock, tool No mistake about it's being
the true reef My hoy, I shouldn't Won