Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: May 7, 2025
"Yes, sir," I said eagerly; "and most useful in all ways." "Be able to forage a little for game eh if we run short of food?" "Oh, yes, sir!" I cried. "That will do, then; let him stay with us." Joeboy was straining his ears to catch every word, and I saw his face light up as he caught my eye, and he gave his assagai a flourish.
"What a narrow escape, Joeboy!" I whispered. "Um!" he said. "No good go that way. Sandho break knees." "Break his knees?" I said. "Yes, I should think he would! Can you find the way back to the track?" "Um! No. All thick; all dark. Come back little way. Sit down and wait." It was good counsel, and I sat fast rather nervously, though while Joeboy backed the horse.
I looked, but could make out nothing; yet I was satisfied it was so. I now gazed eagerly in the direction of our goal, for Joeboy had first turned his eyes there. "Can you see help coming, Joeboy?" I asked anxiously. "Um? No," he replied. "Then it's all over," I said in despair. "Um? Yes, here um come." "Ah!" I cried, remembering now the signal agreed upon. "Is it the Lieutenant Mr Denham?"
"Then you actually went foraging up there, and got back safely with this load?" "Um!" said Joeboy. "Boss Val must have plenty to eat. Doppies nearly caught um." "So I should expect," I said. "But you nearly got shot, stealing up to the lines like this." He laughed softly. "Boss Val wouldn't shoot Joeboy. Doppies nearly ketch him. Big lot coming down now." "What!" I said excitedly.
Joeboy say, `Big boss tell us to go right away other end. Joeboy hear and know how Doppie talk, and Joeboy say right words." "Are you sure?" I said in Boer Dutch, to test him. "Um? Yes. Know what to say, like Boss Val know. Always talk like Boer before Joeboy come and live with Boss Val." "Of course," I whispered, with a feeling of relief. "Um! Boss Val jump in wagon and say nothing.
But seven years glided away, during which apprenticeshiplike time Joeboy, as we called him for he would not be content with Joe when he had heard the "boy" after it once or twice, "Joeboy" quite taking his fancy worked for us constantly, and became the most useful of fellows upon our farm, ready to do anything and do it well, as his strength became tempered with education.
My heart sank as the last word passed my lips. "Suppose they are not Kaffirs?" I thought. There was not a sound, and Joeboy again pinched my arm. I knew what he wanted; so, raising my voice, I said hoarsely, and in an angry tone: "Rouse up! Trek!" There was a loud rattling noise at the same moment, for Joeboy had reached under the wagon to strike here and there with the shaft of his assagai.
They'd stop you before you'd gone straight away for a hundred yards." "I shouldn't go straight away," I said, "but along by the front; and if we were stopped, Joeboy could tell the outpost we were ordered to change position to go on to the other end of the line. What would the outpost care or think about it?
Again, as it seemed, only a few minutes expired before the trumpet once more rang out, and I had to shake myself together, when the first face that looked into mine was that of Joeboy, who was standing close by me with a heap of haversacks at his feet, and grinning at me with a good-humoured smile.
From that moment everything seemed to be like a curious waking dream, in which I was the chief actor; for, passing the last tail and going forward, I walked with Joeboy to the front, all being silent about the wagons.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking