Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner
hate any man for that which he is called," said thestranger; "the name boots nothing."
The stranger sat down again beside the fire, and folded his hands.
"Is the Chartered Company Christian also?" he asked.
"Yes, oh yes," said Peter.
"What is a Christian?" asked the stranger.
"Well, now, you really do ask such curious questions. A Christian is aman who believes in Heaven and Hell, and God and the Bible, and in JesusChrist, that he'll save him from going to Hell, and if he believes he'llbe saved, he will be saved."
"But here, in this world, what is a Christian?"
"Why," said Peter, "I'm a Christian--we're all Christians."
The stranger looked into the fire; and Peter thought he would change thesubject. "It's curious how like my mother you are; I mean, your ways.She was always saying to me, 'Don't be too anxious to make money, Peter.Too much wealth is as bad as too much poverty.' You're very like her."
After a while Peter said, bending over a little towards the stranger,"If you don't want to make money, what did you come to this land for? Noone comes here for anything else. Are you in with the Portuguese?"
"I am not more with one people than with another," said the stranger."The Frenchman is not more to me than the Englishman, the Englishmanthan the Kaffir, the Kaffir than the Chinaman. I have heard," said thestranger, "the black infant cry as it crept on its mother's body andsought for her breast as she lay dead in the roadway. I have heard alsothe rich man's child wail in the palace. I hear all cries."
Peter looked intently at him. "Why, who are you?" he said; then, bendingnearer to the stranger and looking up, he added, "What is it that youare doing here?"
"I belong," said the stranger, "to the strongest company on earth."
"Oh," said Peter, sitting up, the look of wonder passing from his face."So that's it, is it? Is it diamonds, or gold, or lands?"
"We are the most vast of all companies on the earth," said the stranger;"and we are always growing. We have among us men of every race and fromevery land; the Esquimo, the Chinaman, the Turk, and the Englishman, wehave of them all. We have men of every religion, Buddhists, Mahomedans,Confucians, Freethinkers, Atheists, Christians, Jews. It matters to usnothing by what name the man is named, so he be one of us."
And Peter said, "It must be hard for you all to understand one another,if you are of so many different kinds?"
The stranger answered, "There is a sign by which we all know oneanother, and by which all the world may know us." (By this shall all menknow that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.)
And Peter said, "What is that sign?"
But the stranger was silent.
"Oh, a kind of freemasonry!" said Peter, leaning on his elbow towardsthe stranger, and looking up at him from under his pointed cap. "Arethere any more of you here in this country?"
"There are," said the stranger. Then he pointed with his hand into thedarkness. "There in a cave were two women. When you blew the cave upthey were left unhurt behind a fallen rock. When you took away all thegrain, and burnt what you could not carry, there was one basketful thatyou knew nothing of. The women stayed there, for one was eighty, and onenear the time of her giving birth; and they dared not set out to followthe remnant of their tribe because you were in the plains below. Everyday the old woman doled grain from the basket; and at night they cookedit in their cave where you could not see their smoke; and every daythe old woman gave the young one two handfuls and kept one for herself,saying, 'Because of the child within you.' And when the child was bornand the young woman strong, the old woman took a cloth and filled itwith all the grain that was in the basket; and she put the grain onthe young woman's head and tied the child on her back, and said, 'Go,keeping always along the bank of the river, till you come north to theland where our people are gone; and some day you can send and fetch me.'And the young woman said, 'Have you corn in the basket to last till theycome?' And she said, 'I have enough.' And she sat at the broken door ofthe cave and watched the young woman go down the hill and up the riverbank till she was hidden by the bush; and she looked down at the plainbelow, and she saw the spot where the kraal had been and where she hadplanted mealies when she was a young girl--"
"I met a woman with corn on her head and a child on her back!" saidPeter under his breath.
"--And tonight I saw her sit again at the door of the cave; and when thesun had set she grew cold; and she crept in and lay down by the basket.Tonight, at half-past three, she will die. I have known her since shewas a little child and played about the huts, while her mother worked inthe mealie fields. She was one of our company."
"Oh," said Peter.
"Other members we have here," said the stranger. "There was aprospector"--he pointed north; "he was a man who drank and swore when itlisted him; but he had many servants, and they knew where to find him inneed. When they were ill, he tended them with his own hands; when theywere in trouble, they came to him for help. When this war began, and allblack men's hearts were bitter, because certain white men had liedto them, and their envoys had been killed when they would have askedEngland to put her hand out over them; at that time certain of themen who fought the white men came to the prospector's hut. And theprospector fired at them from a hole he had cut in his door; but theyfired back at him with an old elephant gun, and the bullet piercedhis side and he fell on the floor:--because the innocent man suffersoftentimes for the guilty, and the merciful man falls while theoppressor flourishes. Then his black servant who was with him took himquickly in his arms, and carried him out at the back of the hut, anddown into the river bed where the water flowed and no man could tracehis footsteps, and hid him in a hole in the river wall. And when the menbroke into the hut they could find no white man, and no traces of hisfeet. But at evening, when the black servant returned to the hut to getfood and medicine for his master, the men who were fighting caught him,and they said, 'Oh, you betrayer of your people, white man's dog,who are on the side of those who take our lands and our wives and ourdaughters before our eyes; tell us where you have hidden him?' And whenhe would not answer them, they killed him before the door of the hut.And when the night came, the white man crept up on his hands and knees,and came to his hut to look for food. All the other men were gone, buthis servant lay dead before the door; and the white man knew how it musthave happened. He could not creep further, and he lay down beforethe door, and that night the white man and the black lay there deadtogether, side by side. Both those men were of my friends."
"It was damned plucky of the nigger," said Peter; "but I've heard oftheir doing that sort of thing before. Even of a girl who wouldn't tellwhere her mistress was, and getting killed. But," he added doubtfully,"all your company seem to be niggers or to get killed?"
"They are of all races," said the stranger. "In a city in the old Colonyis one of us, small of stature and small of voice. It came to pass on acertain Sunday morning, when the men and women were gathered before him,that he mounted his pulpit: and he said when the time for the sermoncame, 'In place that I should speak to you, I will read you a history.'And he opened an old book more than two thousand years old: and he read:'Now it came to pass that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, whichwas in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
"'And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I mayhave it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and Iwill give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seemeth goodto thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money.
"'And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give theinheritance of my father unto thee.
"'And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the wordwhich Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken unto him; for he had said, I willnot give thee the inheritance of my fathers.'
"The man read the whole story until it was ended. Then he closed thebook, and he said, 'My friends, Naboth has a vineyard in this land;and in it there is much gold; and Ahab has desired to ha
ve it that thewealth may be his.'
"And he put the old book aside, and he took up another which was writtenyesterday. And the men and women whispered one to another, even in thechurch, 'Is not that the Blue Book Report of the Select Committee of theCape Parliament on the Jameson raid?'
"And the man said, 'Friends, the first story I have read you is one ofthe oldest stories of the world: the story I am about to read you isone of the newest. Truth is not more truth because it is three thousandyears old, nor is it less truth
The stranger sat down again beside the fire, and folded his hands.
"Is the Chartered Company Christian also?" he asked.
"Yes, oh yes," said Peter.
"What is a Christian?" asked the stranger.
"Well, now, you really do ask such curious questions. A Christian is aman who believes in Heaven and Hell, and God and the Bible, and in JesusChrist, that he'll save him from going to Hell, and if he believes he'llbe saved, he will be saved."
"But here, in this world, what is a Christian?"
"Why," said Peter, "I'm a Christian--we're all Christians."
The stranger looked into the fire; and Peter thought he would change thesubject. "It's curious how like my mother you are; I mean, your ways.She was always saying to me, 'Don't be too anxious to make money, Peter.Too much wealth is as bad as too much poverty.' You're very like her."
After a while Peter said, bending over a little towards the stranger,"If you don't want to make money, what did you come to this land for? Noone comes here for anything else. Are you in with the Portuguese?"
"I am not more with one people than with another," said the stranger."The Frenchman is not more to me than the Englishman, the Englishmanthan the Kaffir, the Kaffir than the Chinaman. I have heard," said thestranger, "the black infant cry as it crept on its mother's body andsought for her breast as she lay dead in the roadway. I have heard alsothe rich man's child wail in the palace. I hear all cries."
Peter looked intently at him. "Why, who are you?" he said; then, bendingnearer to the stranger and looking up, he added, "What is it that youare doing here?"
"I belong," said the stranger, "to the strongest company on earth."
"Oh," said Peter, sitting up, the look of wonder passing from his face."So that's it, is it? Is it diamonds, or gold, or lands?"
"We are the most vast of all companies on the earth," said the stranger;"and we are always growing. We have among us men of every race and fromevery land; the Esquimo, the Chinaman, the Turk, and the Englishman, wehave of them all. We have men of every religion, Buddhists, Mahomedans,Confucians, Freethinkers, Atheists, Christians, Jews. It matters to usnothing by what name the man is named, so he be one of us."
And Peter said, "It must be hard for you all to understand one another,if you are of so many different kinds?"
The stranger answered, "There is a sign by which we all know oneanother, and by which all the world may know us." (By this shall all menknow that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.)
And Peter said, "What is that sign?"
But the stranger was silent.
"Oh, a kind of freemasonry!" said Peter, leaning on his elbow towardsthe stranger, and looking up at him from under his pointed cap. "Arethere any more of you here in this country?"
"There are," said the stranger. Then he pointed with his hand into thedarkness. "There in a cave were two women. When you blew the cave upthey were left unhurt behind a fallen rock. When you took away all thegrain, and burnt what you could not carry, there was one basketful thatyou knew nothing of. The women stayed there, for one was eighty, and onenear the time of her giving birth; and they dared not set out to followthe remnant of their tribe because you were in the plains below. Everyday the old woman doled grain from the basket; and at night they cookedit in their cave where you could not see their smoke; and every daythe old woman gave the young one two handfuls and kept one for herself,saying, 'Because of the child within you.' And when the child was bornand the young woman strong, the old woman took a cloth and filled itwith all the grain that was in the basket; and she put the grain onthe young woman's head and tied the child on her back, and said, 'Go,keeping always along the bank of the river, till you come north to theland where our people are gone; and some day you can send and fetch me.'And the young woman said, 'Have you corn in the basket to last till theycome?' And she said, 'I have enough.' And she sat at the broken door ofthe cave and watched the young woman go down the hill and up the riverbank till she was hidden by the bush; and she looked down at the plainbelow, and she saw the spot where the kraal had been and where she hadplanted mealies when she was a young girl--"
"I met a woman with corn on her head and a child on her back!" saidPeter under his breath.
"--And tonight I saw her sit again at the door of the cave; and when thesun had set she grew cold; and she crept in and lay down by the basket.Tonight, at half-past three, she will die. I have known her since shewas a little child and played about the huts, while her mother worked inthe mealie fields. She was one of our company."
"Oh," said Peter.
"Other members we have here," said the stranger. "There was aprospector"--he pointed north; "he was a man who drank and swore when itlisted him; but he had many servants, and they knew where to find him inneed. When they were ill, he tended them with his own hands; when theywere in trouble, they came to him for help. When this war began, and allblack men's hearts were bitter, because certain white men had liedto them, and their envoys had been killed when they would have askedEngland to put her hand out over them; at that time certain of themen who fought the white men came to the prospector's hut. And theprospector fired at them from a hole he had cut in his door; but theyfired back at him with an old elephant gun, and the bullet piercedhis side and he fell on the floor:--because the innocent man suffersoftentimes for the guilty, and the merciful man falls while theoppressor flourishes. Then his black servant who was with him took himquickly in his arms, and carried him out at the back of the hut, anddown into the river bed where the water flowed and no man could tracehis footsteps, and hid him in a hole in the river wall. And when the menbroke into the hut they could find no white man, and no traces of hisfeet. But at evening, when the black servant returned to the hut to getfood and medicine for his master, the men who were fighting caught him,and they said, 'Oh, you betrayer of your people, white man's dog,who are on the side of those who take our lands and our wives and ourdaughters before our eyes; tell us where you have hidden him?' And whenhe would not answer them, they killed him before the door of the hut.And when the night came, the white man crept up on his hands and knees,and came to his hut to look for food. All the other men were gone, buthis servant lay dead before the door; and the white man knew how it musthave happened. He could not creep further, and he lay down beforethe door, and that night the white man and the black lay there deadtogether, side by side. Both those men were of my friends."
"It was damned plucky of the nigger," said Peter; "but I've heard oftheir doing that sort of thing before. Even of a girl who wouldn't tellwhere her mistress was, and getting killed. But," he added doubtfully,"all your company seem to be niggers or to get killed?"
"They are of all races," said the stranger. "In a city in the old Colonyis one of us, small of stature and small of voice. It came to pass on acertain Sunday morning, when the men and women were gathered before him,that he mounted his pulpit: and he said when the time for the sermoncame, 'In place that I should speak to you, I will read you a history.'And he opened an old book more than two thousand years old: and he read:'Now it came to pass that Naboth the Jezreelite had a vineyard, whichwas in Jezreel, hard by the palace of Ahab king of Samaria.
"'And Ahab spake unto Naboth, saying, Give me thy vineyard, that I mayhave it for a garden of herbs, because it is near unto my house: and Iwill give thee for it a better vineyard than it; or, if it seemeth goodto thee, I will give thee the worth of it in money.
"'And Naboth said to Ahab, The Lord forbid it me, that I should give theinheritance of my father unto thee.
"'And Ahab came into his house heavy and displeased because of the wordwhich Naboth the Jezreelite had spoken unto him; for he had said, I willnot give thee the inheritance of my fathers.'
"The man read the whole story until it was ended. Then he closed thebook, and he said, 'My friends, Naboth has a vineyard in this land;and in it there is much gold; and Ahab has desired to ha
"And he put the old book aside, and he took up another which was writtenyesterday. And the men and women whispered one to another, even in thechurch, 'Is not that the Blue Book Report of the Select Committee of theCape Parliament on the Jameson raid?'
"And the man said, 'Friends, the first story I have read you is one ofthe oldest stories of the world: the story I am about to read you isone of the newest. Truth is not more truth because it is three thousandyears old, nor is it less truth