The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-15

cOntam1nating BOer, he would be ab to induce him to see the error of h
 ways and change the national custom
 especially those of fighting, and wors still. of polygamy.
 His unhappy wife listened and Wep
 for now the martry's crown which sh had always fOreseen. seemed uncon
 fortably near, indeed as it were, 1 glowed blood red within reach of he
 hand Moreover, in her heart she di
 not believe that Kaffigs could be COT
 verted, at any rate at present. The
 were fighting men, as her Highlan forefathers had been, and her Scottis blood could understand the weakness
 While, as for this pOlyganly, she ha
 long ago secretly concluded that tn practice was one which suited ther
 very well, as it had suited David an l solomon, and even Abraham. But fo all this, although she was sure in he uncanny fashion that her baby's deat | would come of her staying, she refuse 1 to leave her husband as she had re fused eleven years before.
 l Doubtless affection was at the bot tom of 1t, for Janey Dove was a yer. faithful woman: also there were othe things-her fatalism, and stronge still, her weariness. She believed tha they were doomed Well, let the doom fall; she had no fear of the Beyond At the best it might be happy, and a the worst, deep, everlasting rest ant peace, and she felt as though she need ed thousands of years of rest ant peace. Moreover she was sure tha; no harm would come to Rachel, the very apple of her eye; that she was marked to live and to find happiness even in this wild land. So it came about that she refused her husbands offer to allow her to return home where she had no longer any ties, anC for perhaps the twentieth time pre- pared herself to journey she knew not whither.
 Rachel, seated there in the sunless sweltering heat, reflected on these things. Of course she did not know all the story, but most of it had come under her observation in one way or another, and being shrewd by nature, she could guess the rest, for she who was companfOnless had much time for reflection and for guessing. She sym pathized with her father in his ideas, understanding vaguely that there was something large and noble about them, was her mothers child. Already she showed. her mothers dreamy beauty, to which were added her fathers features and clear grey eyes, together with a promise of his height. But of his character she had little, that is outside of a, courage and fixity of purpose, which marked them both. For the rest she was far, or fore-see- ing, like her mother, experiencing the end of things by some strange in stinct; also very faithful in charac- ter.
 Rachel was unhappy. She did not mind the hardship and the heat, for she was accustomed to both, and her health was so perfect that it would have needed much worse things to af- feet her. But she loved the baby that was gone. and wondered whether she would ever see it again. On the whole she thought so. for here that intuition of hers came in. but at the best she was sure that there would be long to wait. She loved her mother also, and grieved more for her than for herself. especially now when she was so i'll. Moreover she knew and shared her mind. This journey, she felt, was foolishness;, her father was man lied by a star' as the natives say, and would follow it over the edge of the world and be no nearer. He was not fit to have charge )f her mother.
 Of herself she did not think so much. Still at Grahamstown, for a year or so there had been other chil- 1ren for companions, Dutch most of hem, it is true, and all rough in mind and manner. Yet they were white md human. While she played with hem she could forget she knew so much more than they did; that, for instance, she could read the Gospels n Greek-which her father had aught her ever since she was a little they could scarcely spell hem out in the Taal, or Boer dialect, md that they had never heard even of William the ConQueror. She did not care particularly about Greek, and the Conqueror, but she did are for friends, and now they were iii gone from her, gone like the baby, IS far off as William the Conqueror. And he, she was alone in the wilderness with father who talked and thought if Heaven all day long, and a mother vl1o lived in memories and walked in he shadow of doom, and oh! she was unhappy.
 Her grey eyes filled with tears so hat she could no longer see that everlasting ocean, which she did not egret as it wearied her. She wiped hem with the back of her hand that vas burnt quite brown by the sun, and urning impatiently, fell to watching wo of those strange insects known $ the praying Mantis, or often in 'outh Africa as Hottentot gods, which 1 fter series of genufectionS, were i low fighting desperately among the 1 cad stalks of grass at her feet. Men | ould not be more savage, she re- ! ected, for really their ferocity was ideous. Then great tear fell upon | he head, of one of them. and aston l shed by this phenomenon, or think l ng perhaps that it had begun to rain, l ] ran away and hid itself, while it's l dversary sat up and looked about it l taking to itself all the | redit of conquest
 She heard a step behind her, and | aving again furtively> wiped her eyes yith her hand, the only handkerchief vailable, looked round to see her fa- her stalking towards her.
 'Why are you crying, Rache1?'' he sked in an irritable voice. ''It is 7rong to cry because your little rother has been taken to glOry.''
 Jesus cried over Lazarus, and He -asn't even His brother" she answer. d in a reflective voice, then by way f defending herself, added inconse- uently: "I was watching two Hot entot gods fight
 AS MT. Drove could think of no re- ly to her very final Scriptural ex- mple, he attacked her on the latter oint.
 (To be Continued.)
 
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