ased the
sunshine from her face.

"Yes, he says he cannot stand the treatment we Cape-Dutchmen receive
from the British Government, and that he means to give up his farm, take
his waggons and goods, and treck away to the north, with the friends who
are already preparing to go, in search of free lands in the wilderness
where the Union Jack does not fly."

"I must be very stupid, Hans," returned his wife, with a deprecating
smile, "for although I've heard your father discussing these matters a
good deal of late, I cannot quite understand them. Of course I see
_well_ enough that those men who approve of slavery must feel very much
aggrieved by the abolition, but your father, like yourself and many
others, is not one of these--what then does he complain of?"

"Of a great deal, Gertie," replied Hans, with an amused glance at her
perplexed face, "and not only in connection with slavery, but other
things. It would take hours of talk to tell you all."

"But can't you give me some sort of idea of these things in a few
words?"

"Yes; at least I'll try," said Hans. "I need scarcely tell you that
there has been a sort of ill-will in the Cape-Dutch mind against the
British Government--more's the pity--ever since the colony passed into
the possession of England, owing partly to their not understanding each
other, partly to incompetent and tyrannical Governors pursuing unwise
policy, partly to unprincipled or stupid men misrepresenting the truth
in England, and partly to the people of England being too ready to
swallow whatever they are told."

"What! is all the fault on the side of the English?" interrupted Gertie,
with a laugh.

"Hear me out, wife," returned Hans--"partly owing to _foolish_ Dutchmen
rebelling against authority, and taking the law into their own hands,
and partly to _rascally_ Dutchmen doing deeds worthy of execration.
Evil deeds are saddled on wrong shoulders, motives are misunderstood,
actions are exaggerated, judges both here and in England are sometimes
incompetent, prejudice and ignorance prevent veils from being removed,
and six thousand miles of ocean, to say nothing of six hundred miles of
land, intervene to complicate the confusion surrounding right or wrong."

"Dear me! what an incomprehensible state of things!" said Gertie,
opening her blue eyes very wide.

"Rather," returned Hans, with a smile; "and yet there are sensible
Englishmen and sensible Cape-Dutchmen who are pretty well agreed as to