68 HOME LIFE ON AN OSTRICH FARM. 



Ugly, ill-made doors ; and with Turkish rugs, Oriental 

 embroideries of all kinds, Moorish and Kabyle pottery, 

 Algerian coffee-tables and brackets, ancient Egyptian 

 curiosities, and other trophies of travel, we produced a 

 general effect which — especially in South Africa — was 

 not to be despised. 



I have conceitedly said " we," as if I had had a great 



share in the work, but it was in reality T who did 



it all, and to whose artistic taste the prettiness of our 

 little home is entirely due. The capacity, too, for 

 turning his hand to anything, which makes him so 

 perfect a colonist, was invaluable to us on that out-of- 

 the-way farm ; for, there being, after the departure of 

 the itinerant workmen who built our rooms, no paint- 

 ers, glaziers, masons, carpenters, or other such useful 

 people anywhere nearer than Graaff-Reinet — four hours 

 by rail from Klipplaat — all the repairs and improve- 

 ments of the house devolved on him. One day he 

 would be putting new panes of glass in the windows — 

 the next, bringing a refractory lock into proper work- 

 ing order, or making and putting up bookshelves — 

 then, perhaps, a defective portion of the roof would 

 claim his attention, or he would enter on a long and 

 persevering conflict with a smoky chimney. One of 

 the latter, indeed, carelessly run up by our ignorant 



builder, was not cured until T had taken it all 



down and built it over again ; since which its behaviour 

 has been blameless. 



N.B. — When a chimney wants sweeping in the 

 Karroo, the usual mode of procedure is to send a fowl 

 down it. 



