36o KLOOF AND KARROO. 



and George, none of which pleased his fancy, he 

 turned his attention to the Eastern province. 



Goodrick had been long and continuously away 

 from the Colony, and in the brief intervals when he 

 had rested from his hunting and trading expeditions, 

 he had usually stayed with his father, an old colonist, 

 in Swellendam, a district to the south-west of the 

 Colony. His knowledge, therefore, of the Eastern 

 province was necessarily somewhat restricted. 

 Stephen, by chance, heard one day from a Boer 

 trekking by with fruit and tobacco, that another 

 Boer named Van der Meulen was leaving his farm 

 near the end of Zwartberg. Losing no time, Stephen 

 saddled up, bade temporary farewell to his wife, 

 whom he left at his father's house, and traversing 

 Lange Kloof and crossing the Kougaberg, he entered, 

 on the afternoon of the third day, Prinsloo's Kloof, 

 whither he had been directed. 



It was a glorious hot afternoon in early summer, 

 the sun shone as only it can in Africa, and under its 

 brilliant rays and with the wealth of vegetation and 

 flower life springing up everywhere around, the 

 kloof, savage though it appeared, put on its mellowest 

 aspect ; and as Goodrick rode up to the farmhouse 

 and noticed the flocks and herds, all sleek and in 

 good condition, he thought that there might be 

 many worse places to outspan for life, than in this 

 beautiful, if solemn valley. 



At the farmhouse he was welcomed by the owner. 

 Van der Meulen, and after a stroll round the kraals 

 and supper over, a business conversation took place 

 before the family retired to rest, which, as it seemed 

 to the young Englishman, they did hurriedly and 

 with some odd glances at one another. Next 



