To See A Farmer Outspan
And Turn The Team Of Active Little Beasts Loose On The Boundless
Veld To Amuse
Themselves for an hour or two, sure that they will
all be there, would astonish him a little; and then
To offer a
horse nothing but a roll in the dust to refresh himself withal!
One unpleasant sight here is the skeletons of horses and oxen along
the roadside; or at times a fresh carcase surrounded by a
convocation of huge serious-looking carrion crows, with neat white
neck-cloths. The skeletons look like wrecks, and make you feel
very lonely on the wide veld. In this district, and in most, I
believe, the roads are mere tracks over the hard, level earth, and
very good they are. When one gets rutty, you drive parallel to it,
till the bush is worn out and a new track is formed.
January 17th. - Lovely weather all the week. Summer well set in.
LETTER VI - CALEDON
Caledon, January 19th.
Dearest Mother,
Till this last week, the weather was pertinaciously cold and windy;
and I had resolved to go to Worcester, which lies in a 'Kessel',
and is really hot. But now the glorious African summer is come,
and I believe this is the weather of Paradise. I got up at four
this morning, when the Dutchmen who had slept here were starting in
their carts and waggons. It was quite light; but the moon shone
brilliantly still, and had put on a bright rose-coloured veil,
borrowed from the rising sun on the opposite horizon. The
freshness (without a shadow of cold or damp) of the air was
indescribable - no dew was on the ground. I went up the hill-side,
along the 'Sloot' (channel, which supplies all our water), into the
'Kloof' between the mountains, and clambered up to the 'Venster
Klip', from which natural window the view is very fine. The
flowers are all gone and the grass all dead. Rhenoster boschjes
and Hottentot fig are green everywhere, and among the rocks all
manner of shrubs, and far too much 'Wacht een beetje' (Wait a bit),
a sort of series of natural fish-hooks, which try the robustest
patience. Between seven and eight, the sun gets rather hot, and I
came in and TUBBED, and sat on the stoep (a sort of terrace, in
front of every house in South Africa). I breakfast at nine, sit on
the stoep again till the sun comes round, and then retreat behind
closed shutters from the stinging sun. The AIR is fresh and light
all day, though the sun is tremendous; but one has no languid
feeling or desire to lie about, unless one is sleepy. We dine at
two or half-past, and at four or five the heat is over, and one
puts on a shawl to go out in the afternoon breeze. The nights are
cool, so as always to want one blanket. I still have a cough; but
it is getting better, so that I can always eat and walk.
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