French blood. Their progenitors on the mother's side, they said,
were descended from one of the French Huguenot families which settled in
the colony after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes.

"You see," said Mynheer Marais, with a quiet smile of satisfaction, as
he applied a boiled cob of mealies or Indian corn to his powerful teeth,
"our family may be said to be about two-thirds Dutch and one-third
French. In fact, we have also a little English blood in our veins, for
my great-grandfather's mother was English on the father's side and Dutch
on the mother's. Perhaps this accounts to some extent for my tendency
to adopt some English and American ideas in the improvement of my farm,
which is not a characteristic of my Cape-Dutch brethren."

"So I have been told, and to some extent have seen," said Considine,
with a sly glance; "in fact they appear to be rather lazy than
otherwise."

"Not lazy, young sir," returned Marais with some emphasis. "They are
easy-going and easily satisfied, and not solicitous to add to their
material comforts beyond a certain point--in short, contented with
little, like Frenchmen, which is a praiseworthy condition of mind,
commended in Holy Writ, and not disposed to make haste to be rich, like
you English."

"Ah, I see," rejoined Considine, who observed a twinkle in the eyes of
some of Mynheer's stalwart sons.

"Yes," pursued the farmer, buttering another mealie-cob, and commencing
to eat it with infinite gusto, "you see, the Cape Dutchmen, although as
fine a set of men as ever lived, are just a _little_ too contented and
slow; on the other hand, young sir, you English are much too reckless
and fast--"

"Just so," interrupted Considine, bowing his thanks to the hostess for a
third venison-steak which she had put on his plate; "the Dutch too slow,
the English too fast, so that three parts Dutch, two parts French, and
one part English--like a dash of seasoning--is, it seems, the perfect
Marais mixture."

This remark produced a sudden and unintentional burst of laughter from
the young Maraises, not so much on account of the excess of humour
contained in it, as from the fact that never before had they heard a
jest of any kind fabricated at the expense of their father, of whom they
stood much in awe, and for whom they had a profound respect.

Conrad Marais, however, could take a joke, although not much given to
making one. He smiled blandly over the edge of his mealie-cob.

"You're r