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Updated: May 10, 2025
The stranger took off his hat, a tall, battered chimneypot, and disclosed a bald head, at the back of which was a little fringe of curled white hair, and he bowed to Tant Sannie. "What does she remark, my friend?" he inquired, turning his crosswise-looking eyes on the old German. The German rubbed his old hands and hesitated.
That small naked son of Ham became instantly so terrified that he fled to his mother's blanket for protection, howling horribly. Upon this the newcomer fixed his eyes pensively on the stamp-block, folding his hands on the head of his cane. His boots were broken, but he still had the cane of a gentleman. "You vagabonds se Engelschman!" said Tant Sannie, looking straight at him.
"Aunt," said the young man, starting up spasmodically; "can I off-saddle?" "Yes." He seized his hat, and disappeared with a rush through the door. "I told you so! I knew it!" said Tant Sannie. "The dear Lord doesn't send dreams for nothing. Didn't I tell you this morning that I dreamed of a great beast like a sheep, with red eyes, and I killed it?
Didn't the minister tell me when I was confirmed not to read any book except my Bible and hymn-book, that the devil was in all the rest? And I never have read any other book," said Tant Sannie with virtuous energy, "and I never will!" Waldo saw that the fate of his book was sealed, and turned sullenly on his heel. "So you will not stay to hear what I say!" cried Tant Sannie.
A Kaffer girl, who had been grinding pepper between two stones, knelt on the floor, the lean Hottentot stood with a brass candlestick in her hand, and Tant Sannie, near the shelf, with a hand on each hip, was evidently listening intently, as were her companions. "What may be it?" cried the old German in astonishment. The room beyond the pantry was the storeroom.
"I've heard about it often," said Tant Sannie. "And he was the son of the old doctor that they say died on Christmas-day, but I don't know if that's true. People do tell such awful lies. Why should he die on Christmas-day more than any other day?" "Yes, aunt, why?" said the young man meekly. "Did you ever have the toothache?" asked Tant Sannie. "No, aunt."
Oh, tell her every word, that she may know I thank her." At that instant the girl reappeared with a basin of steaming gruel and a black bottle. Tant Sannie poured some of its contents into the basin, stirred it well, and came to the bed. "Oh, I can't, I can't! I shall die! I shall die!" said Bonaparte, putting his hands to his side.
"Strange," said Tant Sannie; "I had convulsions too. Wonderful that we should be so much alike!" "Aunt," said the young man explosively, "can we sit up tonight?" Tant Sannie hung her head and half closed her eyes; but finding that her little wiles were thrown away, the young man staring fixedly at his hat, she simpered, "Yes," and went away to fetch candles.
And it was all play, and no one could tell what it had lived and worked for. A striving, and a striving, and an ending in nothing. "I have found something in the loft," said Em to Waldo, who was listlessly piling cakes of fuel on the kraal wall, a week after. "It is a box of books that belonged to my father. We thought Tant Sannie had burnt them."
"There, take your Polity-gollity-gominy, your devil's book!" she cried, flinging the book at his head with much energy. It merely touched his forehead on one side and fell to the ground. "Go on," she cried; "I know you are going to talk to yourself. People who talk to themselves always talk to the devil. Go and tell him all about it. Go, go! run!" cried Tant Sannie.
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