ed me clearly enough that she
had not found an opportunity of sending one.

Observing my depressed condition, my father suggested as a remedy that I
should go to the theological college at Cape Town and prepare myself
for ordination. But the Church as a career did not appeal to me, perhaps
because I felt that I could never be sufficiently good; perhaps because
I knew that as a clergyman I should find no opportunity of travelling
north when my call came. For I always believed that this call would
come.

My father, who wished that I should hear another kind of call, was vexed
with me over this matter. He desired earnestly that I should follow the
profession which he adorned, and indeed saw no other open for me any
more than I did myself. Of course he was right in a way, seeing that in
the end I found none, unless big game hunting and Kaffir trading can be
called a profession. I don't know, I am sure. Still, poor business as
it may be, I say now when I am getting towards the end of life that I
am glad I did not follow any other. It has suited me; that was the
insignificant hole in the world's affairs which I was destined to fit,
whose only gifts were a remarkable art of straight shooting and the more
common one of observation mixed with a little untrained philosophy.

So hot did our arguments become about this subject of the Church, for,
as may be imagined, in the course of them I revealed some unorthodoxy,
especially as regards the matter of our methods of Christianising
Kaffirs, that I was extremely thankful when a diversion occurred which
took me away from home. The story of my defence of Maraisfontein had
spread far, and that of my feats of shooting, especially in the Goose
Kloof, still farther. So the end of it was that those in authority
commandeered me to serve in one of the continual Kaffir frontier wars
which was in progress, and instantly gave me a commission as a kind of
lieutenant in a border corps.

Now the events of that particular war have nothing to do with the
history that I am telling, so I do not propose even to touch on them.
I served in it for a year, meeting with many adventures, one or two
successes, and several failures. Once I was wounded slightly, twice
I but just escaped with my life. Once I was reprimanded for taking a
foolish risk and losing some men. Twice I was commended for what were
called gallant actions, such as bringing a wounded comrade out of danger
under a warm fire, mostly of ass