try. I wonder whether you would object to my helping sometimes in
the store. I am quite strong enough for that now, and I should very
much like to learn how you manage matters, and particularly how your
books are kept. I am sorry to say I am a terribly poor hand at
accounts. Mine never came out right at the end of the month in London."

"Mind! Of course not, Jack! I am glad to think you would care to do
it. Place yourself in Wilfred's hands. He knows all about it, and will
show you how the business is carried on. Who knows? One of these days
you may find shopkeeping more congenial than army life. Out here there
are lots of young fellows who come from the best of houses in the old
country, and yet are not ashamed to pull off their coats and put their
shoulders to the wheel. Why, one man of my acquaintance, who is in a
very prosperous way of business just now, in spite of the exorbitant
taxation with which we have to put up, owns to a title in England, and
when he was there would have no more thought of turning out in the
streets of London without the time-honoured tail-coat and topper than he
would have thought of flying. And here he is now, not too proud to make
his living by honest means, simply because he happened to be born a
lord. And there are lots more like him too. Dear me, what a shock
their parents would have if they could see them now, working behind
their counters with sleeves rolled up, and selling groceries or ironware
as if they had been at it all their lives!"

On the following day Jack took the train for Pretoria, and had the good
fortune to catch a glimpse of Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal
Republic, as he drove by in his carriage.

"Father says he's the deepest and cleverest schemer that ever was!"
exclaimed Wilfred, nodding after the carriage, "and from all one hears
there can be little doubt about it. They say, too, that he is a
religious man, and is something like the Puritans of old. Whatever he
is, however, he is certainly one of our bitterest enemies. He simply
loathes the sight of an Englishman, and won't speak our language. He
forgets all we have done for him, for I can tell you, there would have
been no Kruger and no Boers in the Transvaal if it hadn't been for our
country."

"He's a funny-looking fellow at any rate," answered Jack; "and why in
the name of all that's rummy he should want to wear a topper in this
outlandish place is more than I can guess. If I met