and that if they are sent to war Kruger had better look out, or they may come with their guns and ask him to divide with them!"

"I want to see the Boers," said I. "I think of going to Stellenbosch to see them in their homes. Is that a good place to test?"

"No. You might as well go to Piccadilly Circus to see the English farmer or the Scotch Highlander. The Boers in Cape Colony are so very different from those in the Transvaal that we never call them Boers. We speak of them as Afrikanders. They are one hundred years ahead of the Transvaal Boer. They are refined. They have schools and colleges. They have never been far or long removed from civilisation and the English. You will get very wrong ideas if you go and see the Cape Dutch and write them up as Boers.

"Would you like me to describe a Transvaal Boer home and family? Very well, I know them nearly all, and have stopped with scores of them, for they are kindly and hospitable, except when their animosi ties are aroused. A Boer house is a building made of brick and roofed with zinc. It is divided into two rooms, with a wing or lean-to at the back. That wing is the kitchen where the Kaffir girl works. The other two rooms are the bedroom and the living-room. The sleeping room has as many beds as are required— usually a large one for the man and wife, and another for the children. Often you will see the children's

bed pushed under that of the parents. The livingroom contains a long table and some chairs, seated and backed with strips of leather. There will be another, smaller table, covered with American oil-cloth, on which the frau keeps her simple treasures. These and some pictures, pinned up without frames, are the only ornaments, and a sort of settee with a seat made of leather strips completes the furniture.

"There may sometimes be a harmonium in the corner of the room, and if you can play any simple tunes the whole family will dance as long as you like to play. For books there is certain to be a Bible, and there will be a prayer-book if they can afford it. They are religious, you know; that is, they go to church, and are fond of thinking themselves in God's keeping, but they never let religion interfere with business. At a horse trade they will cheat the back teeth out of your head.

"You have heard that they sleep in their clothes? Well, the man takes off his coat and waistcoat, and sleeps in whatever else he has on. The wife drops off an outer skirt, perhaps, before she gets into bed. Of late extra rooms have been added to the houses of the better class Boers; but in the old style, typical, tworoomed house, whoever stops overnight must sleep with the old folks or children. When you sleep with the old folks the husband always takes the middle of the bed.

"A story which I know is true, is told of Bishop Merriman. He was once entertained in this way, and when he woke in the morning he found that the Boer had crept out to look after his cattle. He gave one glance at his sleeping companion, and dropped out of bed as quickly as if he had been thrown out.

"As to any signs of their ablutions, you will seldom see a Boer with a clean face. One of them has written to a Capetown relative that his people will not wash until they have driven the British into the sea. That sounds impressive, but will not entail much hardship upon his people.

"They tell a story about Paul Kruger's 'polish' after he had been to London and seen the Queen and Mr. Gladstone. It is not a true tale, but it might easily be true of the average Boer. The story goes that when Kruger came home, and was about to get into bed, his wife came in and saw him dressed in a suit of pyjamas. 'Paul!' she exclaimed, 'what are you doing with those English fool clothes? Take them, off and put on your trousers, and go to bed like an honest burgher.'

"As to their intelligence, you know the very old story of the Englishman who was walking through Cape Colony, and was warned never to say he was English in any house where he was asking for a meal. He always said he was 'from Yorkshire,' and was handsomely treated. I don't know whether that

is true or not, but it is not an exaggerated illustration.

"A leading Boer told me the other day that his countrymen would not stop until they have driven the English into Table Bay. And then,' said he, 'we shall go on and capture England.'

"How can you do that without ships?' I asked him.

Moses get the children
They did not need any

"Oh,' he replied, 'how did of Israel across the Red Sea? ships. Just in the same fashion God will find a way for us.'

"Another Boer who was talking of England, said to me, 'I suppose you can see England from Capetown, can't you?'"

Finally, my friend closed his remarks by saying that it was impossible to give me a clear idea of the Boers in such a short talk. He cautioned me to recollect that there are the Dutch in Cape Colony, who are one hundred years ahead of the better class Dutch who live in houses in the Transvaal.

"These," he said, "are the ones about whom I have been speaking. But these, in turn, are far ahead of the Boers who move north and south with their cattle every year, and live at least a part of the time in tents."

CHAPTER V

IDLERS AND MILLIONAIRES

THE refugees, by whom London had dealt so generously, formed the most conspicuous feature of every landscape in Capetown.

The people of the city went about their business, and were doing many times more of it than they ever had done before; but they made scarcely any show, they were so outnumbered on all sides by the refugees. These, having nothing else to do, lined the pavements, blocked the shop doors, and formed living walls round the open spaces where Volunteers seemed to be for ever drilling.

Worry breeds worry, and a week ago the authorities were so anxious lest they might have trouble with the disloyal Dutch subjects of the Queen, that they went further, and borrowed trouble by anticipating possible desperation among the strangers when the time came that all should have spent the little money they pos

sess.

The police had orders not to allow pedestrians to loiter in the streets, and it was a difficult matter to