ay nothing of occasional
buck, and I was allowed to carry a gun, which even in those days I
could use fairly well. So to Maraisfontein I rode on the appointed day,
attended by a Hottentot after-rider, a certain Hans, of whom I shall
have a good deal to tell. I enjoyed very good sport on the road,
arriving at the stead laden with one pauw, two koran, and a little
klipspringer buck which I had been lucky enough to shoot as it bounded
out of some rocks in front of me.

There was a peach orchard planted round Maraisfontein, which just then
was a mass of lovely pink blossom, and as I rode through it slowly, not
being sure of my way to the house, a lanky child appeared in front of
me, clad in a frock which exactly matched the colour of the peach bloom.
I can see her now, her dark hair hanging down her back, and her big, shy
eyes staring at me from the shadow of the Dutch "kappie" which she
wore. Indeed, she seemed to be all eyes, like a "dikkop" or thick-headed
plover; at any rate, I noted little else about her.

I pulled up my pony and stared at her, feeling very shy and not knowing
what to say. For a while she stared back at me, being afflicted,
presumably, with the same complaint, then spoke with an effort, in a
voice that was very soft and pleasant.

"Are you the little Allan Quatermain who is coming to learn French with
me?" she asked in Dutch.

"Of course," I answered in the same tongue, which I knew well; "but
why do you call me little, missie? I am taller than you," I added
indignantly, for when I was young my lack of height was always a sore
point with me.

"I think not," she replied. "But get off that horse, and we will measure
here against this wall."

So I dismounted, and, having assured herself that I had no heels to my
boots (I was wearing the kind of raw-hide slippers that the Boers call
"veld-shoon"), she took the writing slate which she was carrying--it had
no frame, I remember, being, in fact, but a piece of the material used
for roofing--and, pressing it down tight on my stubbly hair, which stuck
up then as now, made a deep mark in the soft sandstone of the wall with
the hard pointed pencil.

"There," she said, "that is justly done. Now, little Allan, it is your
turn to measure me."

So I measured her, and, behold! she was the taller by a whole half-inch.

"You are standing on tiptoe," I said in my vexation.

"Little Allan," she replied, "to stand on tiptoe would be to lie before
the good Lord,