The Petticoat Commando Part 29

"Oh yes, Nonnie, I am always thinking of them, but I was thinking also how sad it was to forget all my learning. I was getting on so well with my reading and writing, and now I find it so hard to go on by myself."

"Oh, if that is all, Paulus," Hansie said cheerfully, "I can help you a lot. Bring me your books this evening and let me hear you read."

The poor fellow's look of grat.i.tude was touching to behold. He needed no second invitation, and appeared that evening in his Sunday suit, with a new shirt on, and his hands and face scrubbed with soap and water until they shone like polished ebony.

A Dutch Bible, a book of hymns and psalms, and a small spelling-book were all he possessed, but Hansie found him further advanced than she had expected, and wonderfully intelligent, and she soon added a few simple reading-books to his small store.

Now and then she instructed him for a short hour, and it was a pleasure to see the change which came over him within a few weeks.

Learning became the joy of his life, and in his ambition to get on he forgot much of his anxiety and distress at the enforced separation from his wife and children.

One evening when Hansie had gone into the kitchen to look over his work, there was a sudden fumbling at the door and "Gentleman Jim"

stumbled in with a campstool under one arm and a slate and Bible, an English one, under the other.

"Coming to learn too, little missie," he said, grinning from ear to ear and settling himself comfortably on the stool.

Paulus bent over his writing and said never a word. Hansie nodded uncomfortably.

That this self-invited pupil was unwelcome was evident, but he himself seemed serenely unconscious of the fact.

There was no love lost between Paulus and "Gentleman Jim"--not that there had ever been an open rupture, but Paulus despised the dandified Zulu, and "Jim" looked down (figuratively speaking, for he was quite a foot shorter in stature) on Paulus's rugged simplicity.

They systematically ignored one another, and were only heard to exchange brief sentences, in English from Jim and in Dutch from Paulus, when necessity compelled them to address one another, for Jim could speak no Sesuto and Paulus knew neither Zulu nor English.

Their antipathy to one another was so marked, in fact, that "Gentleman Jim" refused to have his meals with Paulus and had built a small kitchen apart for himself, under one of the big willows. On this occasion Hansie did not feel pleased at "Jim's" appearance either, for it was one thing to teach the self-contained and reverent Sesuto, and quite another to instruct the flippant "Gentleman Jim."

But Hansie did not know what to say and asked Jim to let her hear him read. He began laboriously, floundering hopelessly over the long words.

"Fruits, meat _and_ repentance,"[3] he read with painful uncertainty, when Hansie interrupted him with a laugh:

"That will do, Jim; you are wonderful, and you need not come again."

Other natives on the premises were of the shiftless, wandering type, changing hands continually, and many were the instances of their simplicity, not to say rank stupidity.

On one occasion a "raw" Kaffir, on being ordered to take a heavily laden wheelbarrow from one part of the garden to the other, was found half an hour later, still in the same place, vainly trying to place the wheelbarrow on his head!

I believe it was the same native who, when told to empty the contents of a waste-paper basket on a burning heap of rubbish in the garden, returned without the basket, and when asked what he had done with it, pointed, with an air of injured surprise, to its smouldering remains on the heap of rubbish.

Indeed, the patience of the housewife was often sorely tried. A relative of Mrs. van Warmelo's coming into the kitchen one morning, found one of these new "hands" before the stove in a sea of hot water, desperately trying to fill a small kettle _by the spout_, from a large one!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 2: Mn en dn.]

[Footnote 3: "Fruits meet for repentance."]

CHAPTER XXII

THE SECRET RAILWAY TIME-TABLE

Thank G.o.d for the early rains!

After the long winter months, dry and dusty, terrific storms pa.s.s over the country, torrents of rain, lashing hailstones. The beautiful world is washed clean, and everywhere the moist brown earth gives promise of a plentiful supply of fresh young gra.s.s, which means food for the weary underfed horses on commando, and new life, new hopes to the men.

Only the middle of August and already the first summer rains are falling!

Thank G.o.d again!

The cruel strain of anxious thought for our heroes in the field can be relaxed for a moment, and we turn our energies with redoubled vigour and strengthened faith to the task at our hand. Heaven knows that we shall require all the courage we possess to face the impending disasters, of which the shadows have already fallen on our hearts.

One morning the disconcerting news reached Harmony that Mrs. Naude's house had been surrounded by armed soldiers at break of day and that she had been taken away with her child, in a waggon, no one knew where.

The empty house was being closely watched.

Did the enemy really think that the sagacious Captain of the Secret Service would walk into the trap some fine evening, there to meet with certain destruction? Evidently, for the house was guarded night and day.

August 5th brought new sensation and fresh material for thought and conversation.

There had been a brief lull in the adventures, and all were of opinion that as long as this spell of vigilance lasted no spies would enter the town. It therefore came as a surprise when our little friend with the walking-stick was to be seen coming up the garden path of Harmony, wearing that air of happy mystery so familiar to his fellow-workers.

The spies had come at last, not the Captain himself, but his secretary, Mr. Greyling, with two other men named Nel and Els, on an important and extremely dangerous mission.

They had arrived too late to be brought out to Harmony, but they were staying with Mrs. Joubert, and, if they were successful in obtaining the help they required, their intention was to leave again that night.

At this point in the visitor's narrative, Hansie, who had been engaged in making b.u.t.ter, came in with an expectant look. Mr. Botha motioned her to draw nearer, and in hurried whispers, although there was no one in the room but themselves, told them that these men had been sent to procure a copy of the secret railway time-table, an official book containing full detailed information of the military trains, provision and ammunition--trains, in fact, laden with clothing and everything required by the military. The women looked at one another and smiled at the audacity of the request. They had never heard of such a time-table and might as well have been asked to send the moon to the front.

But their visitor was very grave.

This was no child's play, but a very serious matter, for a great deal depended on the securing of that book.

The horses on commando were in a very poor condition after the hard winter, and the men had no clothes to speak of. So it was absolutely necessary that they should have their stock reinforced by the capture of some of the enemy's trains.

Mrs. van Warmelo promised to do her best, but gave her visitor little hope of success.

Soon after he left, a carriage drove up with Mrs. Joubert, her son "Jannie," and her married daughter, Mrs. Malan.

Their mission was the same as Mr. Botha's, the secret time-table, and Mr. Jannie, as he drew Hansie aside, urged her to do all in her power to procure a copy of this valuable book. The same ground was gone over, with the same result, "We can but try." That whole morning was spent in seeing different people, trusted friends, on the subject, and everywhere Hansie and her mother were met with the same objections.

Most people had never heard of this time-table, and those who knew of its existence, were convinced that it would be quite impossible to get a sight of it, as it was in the hands of officials only.