34 'Recollections of Adventures 



Aletta Vermuelen and her husband, living 

 near Heidelberg, went to Waterfall River shooting. 

 The wagon was fairly loaded with game. They 

 started for home, when the lightning killed the 

 husband, who was driving, and the two hind oxen. 

 The dead man slipped off on to the ground, the wife 

 had no help but a little boy of 10 ; she had to lift her 

 husband on to the wagon, to cut loose the two dead 

 oxen, to inspan the others, after pushing the wagon 

 back from the dead oxen, then drive the wagon 

 about 30 miles home. She kept up bravely until in 

 sight of the house, when she fainted. Her people 

 subsequently found her with her two small children 

 in the wagon at the side of her dead husband. 

 She is still alive, living near the Premier Mine. I 

 have had endless narrow escapes both in Natal and 

 the Transvaal, but have mercifully been spared. 

 The lightning struck a small gum tree on "The 

 Willows " one day, I was writing in my office when 

 I heard the crash, and the rattling of the roof, and 

 ran out to see what was the matter, and found your 

 mother, her old servant-woman Clara, my brother 

 Fred and my man Postill, all more or less dazed, 

 though not near each other. The charge had jumped 

 from the tree about 6 feet from the ground to the 

 iron roof, and the current had affected all of them in 

 passing. 



My elder brother Alex, who was in the Civil 

 Service in Natal, used to make a trip up country 

 with me occasionally, as his health was not good ; 

 he had while riding in a steeple chase burst a blood 

 vessel and was never very strong afterwards. 



One trip it rained incessantly and all the rivers 

 were in flood. While we were delayed at the Wilge 

 River, three English military officers, who were 

 going on a shooting trip, but had only short leave, 



