Three Bullock-Waggons Had Outspanned, And The Dutch
Boers And Bastaards (Half Hottentots) Were All Drunk.
We went into
a neat little 'public', and had porter and ham sandwiches, for
which I paid 4s. 6d. to a miserable-looking English woman, who was
afraid of her tipsy customers.
We got to Houw Hoek, a pretty
valley at the entrance of a mountain gorge, about half-past five,
and drove up to a mud cottage, half inn, half farm, kept by a
German and his wife. It looked mighty queer, but Choslullah said
the host was a good old man, and all clean. So we cheered up, and
asked for food. While the neat old woman was cooking it, up
galloped five fine lads and two pretty flaxen-haired girls, with
real German faces, on wild little horses; and one girl tucked up
her habit, and waited at table, while another waved a green bough
to drive off the swarms of flies. The chops were excellent, ditto
bread and butter, and the tea tolerable. The parlour was a tiny
room with a mud floor, half-hatch door into the front, and the two
bedrooms still tinier and darker, each with two huge beds which
filled them entirely. But Choslullah was right; they were
perfectly clean, with heaps of beautiful pillows; and not only none
of the creatures of which he spoke with infinite terror, but even
no fleas. The man was delighted to talk to me. His wife had
almost forgotten German, and the children did not know a word of
it, but spoke Dutch and English.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 46 of 141
Words from 12380 to 12645
of 37925
