ht cannot hear his breathing. Life may be painted
according to either method; but the methods are different. The canons of
criticism that bear upon the one cut cruelly upon the other.

It has been suggested by a kind critic that he would better have liked
the little book if it had been a history of wild adventure; of cattle
driven into inaccessible kranzes by Bushmen; "of encounters with
ravening lions, and hair-breadth escapes." This could not be. Such works
are best written in Piccadilly or in the Strand: there the gifts of the
creative imagination, untrammelled by contact with any fact, may spread
their wings.

But, should one sit down to paint the scenes among which he has grown,
he will find that the facts creep in upon him. Those brilliant phases
and shapes which the imagination sees in far-off lands are not for him
to portray. Sadly he must squeeze the colour from his brush, and dip it
into the gray pigments around him. He must paint what lies before him.

R. Iron.

"We must see the first images which the external world casts
upon the dark mirror of his mind; or must hear the first
words which awaken the sleeping powers of thought, and stand
by his earliest efforts, if we would understand the
prejudices, the habits, and the passions that will rule his
life. The entire man is, so to speak, to be found in the
cradle of the child."

Alexis de Tocqueville.

Glossary.

Several Dutch and Colonial words occurring in this work, the subjoined
Glossary is given, explaining the principal.

Alle wereld!--Gosh!
Aasvogels--Vultures.
Benauwdheid--Indigestion.
Brakje--A little cur of low degree.
Bultong--Dried meat.
Coop--Hide and Seek.
Inspan--To harness.
Kapje--A sun-bonnet.
Karoo--The wide sandy plains in some parts of South Africa.
Karoo-bushes--The bushes that take the place of grass on these plains.
Kartel--The wooden-bed fastened in an ox-wagon.
Kloof--A ravine.
Kopje--A small hillock, or "little head."
Kraal--The space surrounded by a stone wall or hedged with thorn branches,
into which sheep or cattle are driven at night.
Mealies--Indian corn.
Meerkat--A small weazel-like animal.
Meiboss--Preserved and dried apricots.
Nachtmaal--The Lord's Supper.
Oom--Uncle.
Outspan--To unharness, or a place in the field where one unharnesses.
Pap--Porridge.
Predikant--Parson.
Riem--Leather rope.
Sarsarties--Food.
S