ON AN EAST AFRICAN RANCH 
41 
to be sung by the father, who holds the little boy or little 
girl on his knee, and tosses him or her up in the air when 
he comes to the last line: 
Trippa, troppa, tronjes, 
De varken’s in de boonjes, 
De koejes in de klaver, 
De paardeen in de haver, 
De eenjes in de water-plass! 
So groot myn kleine (here insert the 
little boy’s or little girl’s name) wass! 
My pronunciation caused trouble at first; but I think 
they understood me the more readily because doubtless 
their own usual tongue was in some sort a dialect; and 
some of them already knew the song, while they were all 
pleased and amused at my remembering and repeating 
it; and we were speedily on a most friendly footing. 
The essential identity of interest between the Boer 
and British settlers was shown by their attitude toward 
the district commissioner, Mr. Humphery, who was just 
leaving for his biennial holiday, and who dined with us 
in our tent on his way out. From both Boer farmer and 
English settler—and from the American missionaries also 
—I heard praise of Humphery, as a strong man, not in 
the least afraid of either settler or native, but bound to do 
justice to both, and, what was quite as important, sympa¬ 
thizing with the settlers and knowing and understanding 
their needs. A new country in which white pioneer settlers 
are struggling with the iron difficulties and hardships of 
frontier life is above all others that in which the officials 
should be men having both knowledge and sympathy with 
