cripture are not very firmly impressed on their
minds.

When the organ begins to peal forth the voluntary, the worshippers
troop into their seats. During the choral part of the service the
congregation remain seated, and they rise when the minister prays. The
elderly gentlemen very promptly go to sleep when the text is given
out, and they lean back in their respective corners with the full
assurance that they will not be disturbed for at least an hour.
Occasionally they may be gently aroused by their wives or children,
whose supply of sweets has been exhausted. By the way, every Boer in
the country has one particular weakness, and that is a desire after
sweets. The young men recklessly walk into a store whenever they come
to town, and devote a portion of their capital to the purchase of
'Dutch mottoes,' to which the ladies are very partial. The elderly men
are not so particular in this respect.

When the benediction is about to be pronounced, there is a general
scramble after hats, and the last Amen has scarcely been uttered when
there is a rush for the doors. It seems to amount to a sort of
competition as to who will be first in the street.

It may be interesting to pause for a moment and look at the
collections. The poorer classes besiege the stores on Saturday with
anxious inquiries for 'stickeys,' i.e., threepenny-pieces. To a poor
man with a large family of church-goers this matter of church
collections is a serious business unless he can get four mites out of
a shilling, as coppers are not used in the Transvaal; but I have
known men of good standing inquire as eagerly for the despised
threepenny-piece. When special collections are called for, in aid of a
new organ fund, for instance, the results are rather surprising. In
one instance the combined special collections on a Nachtmaal Sunday
amounted to a little over L500, with a congregation of only 400. This
points to the fact that there is money enough in the country, and it
only requires a church collection to prove it.

It is to be regretted that the Boer does not devote a little more
attention to the education of his children. If there happens to be a
school anywhere near his farm, he does not mind taking advantage of
this with a view to 'teaching the young idea how to shoot'; but
perhaps he takes too literal a view of this adage. His chief care is
to see that his boys are taught to shoot straight, and he does not
attach so much importance as he might to th