The Yale expositor., 1900-05-04
The Mercy of the Boer

A Wartime
Story of the Tronsvoal

Night had just fallen upon the veldt.
The short dusk had suddenly deepened
into a heavy, thick obscurity, i'm
penetrable for a space until there rose
the rim of a full moon over the edge
of the plain which showed hard and
clear against the great disk. The ant
hills, that alone broke the monotonous
hatness, flung interminable inky shad-
ows as the cold, white glare, electric
in its fierce intensity, shone out lever
across the plains.
BY the edge of the marsh transport
wagon had outspanned for the night,
and within the circle OF firellght,
where moon and flame struggled for
the mastery, doomed the wavering
outlines of the trek oxen tethered TO
the disselboom, and now and again
the figure of man.
The only sounds were the cracking
chirps of the bullfrogs in the Wei, and
the voices of two men who sat leaning
back against the kaross of meer-kat
skins flung over one of the wagon
wheels.
mol" repeated the elder man, the
transport rider and owner of the
wagon-raising his voice. with us
they shall not come-either she or the
brat"
But look, Jakob," persisted the
other; cit is now three weeks, four
weeks, that we are on the trek, and
she has followed all the time, and car
ried the child, too. How the poor girl
lives l do not know. Take only the
child, Jakob."
How are we to eat? How is the
vrouw to eat?" demanded the Boer
ENORMOUSLY. Are there not enough
mouths to fill already? And God
knows how much further the span can
so without water in this accursed
country; they have enough to pull, as
1t is. And why should l feed the wife
and child of every black schelm that
is fool enough to want them? Vev-
domte swartzkop!" And he spat
angrily into the fire.
But the child" persisted Pet;
chat is small and eats but little, not a
quarter as much as a dog. Besides,
Klaus may run away if the girl falls
sick, and he alone knows the road and
the drifts across the river"
There was a moments pause. well,
then, the brat, in Gods name" snap
ped the other. The girl can walk, as
she has walked these three weeks" he
added, and rolled himself into his rug
to avoid further surrender.
Pet rose stifiy to his feet; the night
breeze was growing chill. He knocked
the ashes out of his pipe. kicked some
fuel into the embers of the fire and
went around to the other side of the
wagon, where the three Basuto boys
were lying.
"Klaus!" he called. Here a mo-
menti"
A grunt from one of the blankets
answered him.
"Baas Jakob says a baby may ride
with the vrouw in the wagon, but the
girl must still walk"
There was a sudden movement at his
feet and dark figure rolled out of
the blanket
mo, boy, no! Not that" His hand
was DelnB covered WIN KISSES. BleL
drew it sharply away, and, taking
strip of biltong from his pocket, thrust
it into the Basuto's grasp. Here, this
may help for the girl; 1t was all 1
could get" he answered roughly, and
turning on his heel he went back to
where his brother lay sleeping. Baas
Piet was as averse to being generous
as the transport rider, though for
other reasons.
For a while Klaus lay still.
Presently, carrying the piece of hard
sundried meat and his own supper of
boiled mealies, he crept shivering from
his blanket and went slowly out to the
silent veldt, in the direction from
which the wagon had come, as he had
gone every night to listen for the
signal that told him Beta was there
among the ant hills Then he would
cheer her up and sit beside her while
she ate some OF his poor rations,