iculty in recognising
some of the articles purchased eleven or twelve months previously.
This particular gentleman's argument had reference to a pair of spurs,
which he deposed had been given to him as a present by the manager,
and his hitherto good opinion of the clerk who had charged the spurs
in his account was permanently damaged. He said he wasn't a man of
that sort. If he wanted to buy spurs, he could pay cash down for about
fifteen thousand pairs and, in short, he could buy up all the spurs in
the country! He would pay for those spurs now: he wouldn't take a pair
of anything, gratis or otherwise, from that merchant as long as he
lived. He would go home and put eight horses into his wagonette and
drive round the country and tell all his friends about that pair of
spurs, and he wouldn't rest until he had completed the task to his own
satisfaction.

The book-keeper tried in vain to calm him down by presenting him with
a bunch of grapes, but he only regarded the peace-offering with
extreme contempt. He wanted to know what else he had been charged
with, and the clerk, in conciliatory tones, proceeded to read over the
several items. He came to 'one pound of tea.' That was the last straw.

'What! a pound of tea--a pound! Almachtig! Ik koop thee bij de zak (I
buy tea by the bag).'

The suspicious nature of the Boer is always in evidence, although the
Englishman must perforce humour it. It would be interesting to learn,
for instance, how many thousands of pounds are sewn up in mattresses
all over the country because the owners are chary concerning the
integrity of bank-managers. They have no doubt whatever but that a
bank is a paying concern (one Boer entered a bank recently and
wanted to see the place where they made the money), but they would
much rather keep their own money out of it, in case it should get
mixed up with the earnings and savings of other people and be lost.
The story runs that one old vrouw journeyed to town in her waggon one
day for the express purpose of depositing L300 with the local bank,
but when she found that they wanted to give her so much for keeping it
(interest) instead of asking her to pay a small amount by way of
compensation for taking charge of her money, she became suspicious and
took her L300 back to the farm and the double grass mattress once
more. It is unnecessary to state that this particular lady never
trusted another banking institution.

[Illustration: WAGGONS CROSSING RIVER