a brass tea-kettle heated like a
chafing-dish. On the walls and in corners were several flint-lock guns,
and one or two of the short light javelins used by the Kafirs for
throwing in battle, named assagais.

Three small doors led into three inner rooms, in which the entire family
slept. There were no other apartments, the kitchen being an outhouse.
On the centre table was spread a substantial breakfast, from which the
various members of the family had risen on the arrival of the horsemen.

Considine was introduced to Mynheer Marais' vrouw, a good-looking, fat,
and motherly woman verging on forty,--and his daughter Bertha, a pretty
little girl of eight or nine.

"What is Mynheer's name?" was the matron's first question.

Mynheer replied that it was Charles Considine.

"Was Mynheer English?"

"Yes," Mynheer was proud to acknowledge the fact.

Mrs Marais followed up these questions with a host of others--such as,
the age and profession of Mynheer, the number of his relatives, and the
object of his visit to South Africa. Mynheer Marais himself, after
getting a brief outline of his son's meeting with the Englishman, backed
the attack of his pleasant-faced vrouw by putting a number of questions
as to the political state of Europe then existing, and the chances of
the British Government seriously taking into consideration the
unsatisfactory condition of the Cape frontier and its relations with the
Kafirs.

To all of these and a multitude of other questions Charlie Considine
replied with great readiness and good-humour, as far as his knowledge
enabled him, for he began quickly to appreciate the fact that these
isolated farmers, who almost never saw a newspaper were thirsting for
information as to the world in general as well as with regard to himself
in particular.

During this bombardment of queries the host and hostess were not
forgetful to supply their young guest with the viands under which the
substantial table groaned, while several of the younger members of the
family, including the pretty Bertha, stood behind the rest and waited on
them. With the exception of the host and hostess, none of the household
spoke during the meal, all being fully occupied in listening eagerly and
eating heartily.

When the Dutch fire began to slacken for want of ammunition, Considine
retaliated by opening a British battery, and soon learned that Marais
and his wife both claimed, and were not a little proud of, a few drops
of