We have to wait for HIM. The next move is
his. Till he plays his piece, I cannot tell how I may have to checkmate
him."
So we waited for Sebastian to advance a pawn. Meanwhile, I toyed with
South African farming--not very successfully, I must admit. Nature did
not design me for growing oats. I am no judge of oxen, and my views on
the feeding of Kaffir sheep raised broad smiles on the black faces of my
Mashona labourers.
I still lodged at Tant Mettie's, as everybody called Mrs. Klaas; she was
courtesy aunt to the community at large, while Oom Jan Willem was its
courtesy uncle. They were simple, homely folk, who lived up to their
religious principles on an unvaried diet of stewed ox-beef and bread;
they suffered much from chronic dyspepsia, due in part, at least, no
doubt, to the monotony of their food, their life, their interests. One
could hardly believe one was still in the nineteenth century; these
people had the calm, the local seclusion of the prehistoric epoch.
For them, Europe did not exist; they knew it merely as a place where
settlers came from. What the Czar intended, what the Kaiser designed,
never disturbed their rest.
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