The age-herald., 1900-05-06

knowledge of figures that, if necessary, he can handle fathers stock and account books With this his education is quite finished, and he Is set to work upon pratt cal matters.
 For several years the young boy is taught all about stock, for the farms are mostly stock farms, cattle bringing a good profit in South Africa He also learns to ride fearlessly. By the time he is fifteen he can break horse to the saddle to a charm. Four or five years before that he has started in as 'herd' on the ''veldt," as field is called there. South African mornings are bitterly cold, but he Is al- lowed no excuse and no shirking. At a certain time of the year he often has to spend a week at time at the sheepfold, day and night, sleeping In a hut of long grass and with his old Kaffir servant, who cooks and fetches water to him, the only other human being for miles.
 It is a big responsibility for a boy to have, for the care and safety of the whole herd rest upon his shoulders. If 1t is cat tie he is watching over he must milk the COWS and doctor and tend them. If sheep, he must know how to shear, roll the f1eeces and pack them into the bale. Quite as much must he know, too, about sheep ailments. These tasks are never ending, and they have to be performed in all wea- thers and at all hours. But each boy, solid, silent and stupid as he seems, does his work faithfully and well. The Dutch blood In these strong young IeilOWS, udTucnSu to wind and rain, makes them steady and sure, as were their fathers before them.
 But herding though 1t seems quite enough in itself, is only the beginning of what a Boer boy knows how to do. There are few carpenters, smiths and builders in this out-of- -the-way land, and the boys are easily taught to do this sort of work about the farms. The Boer boy can make bricks and even put up substantial house laying the foundations, clustering, making windows and doors and putting on the roof.
 Then, too, they must learn how to tan skins. to make leather for boots saddles, harness, whip thongs or for whatever else the housewife or the head of the family may want it. Excellent leather do these farming establishments turn out, though 1t is all for use at home. Besides, the boy soon gets to know the value of each of the skins of the different animals, wild and tame. He gets this knowledge from his hunting expeditions in leisure hours. The rife is the great joy of these Dutch fellows, and hunting their greatest amuse- ment. The buck antelope is the chief game of this region. At very early ages these Boer boys learn the handling of a rife. and taken as a nation, they are the young est sportsmen in the world.
 A constant companion of these boys, and their most cherished possession, Is the pocket knife. No youthful Dutchman of the Transvaal is considered @ genuine boy unless he has such knife, Of fine quality and kept in perfect condition. For the Boers do all manner of things with these knives making harness, for example, as well as mending it, even to the performing of surgical operations upon animals and mon.
 Pretty Boer girls are hard to find, but if their faces are not attractive. they are at least brilliant specimens of health. A good bart of their lives is lived in the open air, and they can ride as well as their brothers
 Every Rnar Girl works in the dairy and