of the Predikant at Dopfontein, was choked with
a peach-stone. He was riding very fast, and as he came near
the house he rode off the road and jumped his horse at the
wall. And as he came over, up rose the little picaninny
right under his horse's hoofs. 'Twas a quick way to die,
and without much pain, no doubt; but a most awful thing to
see. The horse stumbled on to him, and I can remember now
how his knee, the near knee, crushed the little Kafirs
chest in. The little black legs and arms fought for a
moment, and then the horse struggled up, and he was dead.

"Fanie seemed sorry. He couldn't help killing the
picaninny, of course, and perhaps we had grown rather
foolish about him, having watched him and laughed at him so
long. So Fanie got off his horse and came in to tell us the
news.

"When we went out the horse was standing at the door where
Fanie had left it. But the old Kafir was kneeling by the
steps fingering its hoofs, which were all bloody, and as
Fanie came forward he put out his hands and left a little
spot of blood on Fanie's shoes.

"Fanie stood for a moment, and his face went white as paper
over his black beard. He knew, you see. But in a flash he
went red as fire, and lashed the old man across the face
with his whip. The old man did not move at all; but my
brothers held Fanie and called to the Kafirs to come and
fetch the old man away. Oh, but I promise you Fanie was
angry, as men will be when they are obliged to be good by
force.

"Well, that was all that happened that day. Fanie went
away, and we all saw that he galloped the horse as fast as
it could go. But down by the kraals the Kafirs who were
carrying the old man stopped and watched him as he went.

"Well, in a few days most of us forgot the ugly business,
though the little picaninny used to walk through my dreams
for a time. Still, blood-kin are blood-kin, and Kafirs are
Kafirs, and one day Fanie came over to see us again and we
gave him coffee. He told us a story about a rooinek that
bought a sheep, and the man gave him a dog in a sack, and
he paid for it and went away, and we all laughed at it. He
was very funny that day, and said that when he married he
would choose an old woman who would die quickly and leave
him all her farms. So it was late and dark before he up-
saddled to go away.

"Well, he was gone a quarter of an hour when we heard
hoofs, galloping, galloping, hard and furious, coming up
the road. And as we opened the door a