Part 11

"She deserves all her happiness," said Algarkirke humbly; "but it is not so with me. I see by Jack's face, he is thinking of the night when he wanted me to speak up for her, and I would not, because I despised the low, black cattle, and hated myself to think a similar misfortune could overwhelm us both. I had no feeling for anybody but myself. I thought if I had tried to help her, I should only let loose my own shame. It was better to stand aloof. And now I could wish my whole life undone."

"Cheer up," said Mr. Treby kindly. "Remember what I said to you when first we met. If the old self is dead, you may climb to a higher and a happier life. You've had hard lines, my poor boy, and you never heard the still small voice that was whispering through it all, 'Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.' But we must not speak of a day until we see its close; for Christ is ever with us, sowing light in the darkness, drawing good from evil, changing the curse into a blessing in his own good time."

And so they parted.

Three days afterwards the Hottentot cart from Jaarsveldt appeared once more at Mr. Treby's gate. Mr. Treby recognized the mining yellow face of the Jaarsveldt cow-keeper.

"What's up?" he asked as Zyl and Genderen tumbled out of the lumbering vehicle with more than their usual awkwardness.

They did not perceive Mr. Treby, as they were intently looking after something behind the cart. Zyl held a rope in his hand, and as Mr. Treby drew nearer, he saw that he was leading a splendid male ostrich, with brilliant eyes and plumage of the purest white.

"Where is Jack?" they asked, as Seco hurried up to greet his countryman.

"They shall have it their own way," thought Mr. Treby. "I won't spoil the children's pleasure by interfering before I know what they are after." He stepped into the garden and sent Jack to meet his friends.

Seco stood by his countryman with his hands to his sides, laughing with all his might, whilst Genderen called up Vickel. She came slowly, with her head on one side, eying the new arrival, which Zyl still contrived to keep well in leash.

Mr. Treby paused with his hand on the garden gate, for Genderen's slow Dutch, filtered through Hottentot into Jack's English, was amusing in the extreme. "Enough to make a cat laugh," he said.

"What have you brought your Speriwig here for?" shouted Jack in great glee.

"Never you mind," retorted Zyl. "Algarkirke's gone for good, and we shall all be dunces, I suppose."

"He thought a great deal about Vickel," put in Genderen, with her fingers in her mouth, of course. "You know you told him all his good luck was owing to her. He said he should send her a silver collar from England. Nonsense, we told him, what would a bird care about that? Get her a nice mate, and she will be as happy as the day is long. So he made a deal with father when they squared all up. He said if he had money enough to take him to Pretoria that was all he wanted. He was in such a hurry to be gone, he left father to get in the money that was owing him for schooling at the off farms. And Vickel's to have Speriwig."

"Speriwig, will get his own living browsing on the veldt, as Vickel does," added Zyl; "and if you have a brood of chicks, Jack, you need not mind."

There was a sly twinkle in the Dutch boy's eyes as he rubbed his hands together, and even Mr. Treby had to own it was cleverly done.

Sandford Algarkirke was beyond the reach of either thanks or refusals, as Zyl averred. Jack must pocket his English pride and let his Vickel keep her mate.

"It was all my plan," observed Genderen, her round face radiating with pleasure. "I was sure it would please Jack better than anything else; and now, if he takes care of his chicks, by the time he is a man, he will have as fine a flock of ostriches as any farmer in Africa."

"Do you hear that, Jack?" said Mr. Treby, coming forward. "Like Whittington's cat, your snow-feathered queen will make you a wealthy man."

Jack drew a deep breath of gratitude and delight as he looked up in his father's face, exclaiming, "Oh, isn't it kind of Mr. Algarkirke? I always did like him very much, except when he called Sannie 'a fatted calf,' Why didn't she come with you?"

"Oh, Sannie!" grumbled Zyl. "You are never easy without Sannie."

As usual Zyl was right. Jack never was quite happy without her any more, and when the wealthy manhood his father had predicted drew near, he went one day to Jaarsveldt and brought her home a bride.

THE END.