She instantly came back, but without any loss of dignity, for
she strutted with her nose in the air, affecting completely to ignore
the inferior little animal, that was nevertheless controlling her
movements. "There's a farce," said Phoebe. "But you would not believe
the money they cost me, nor the money they bring me in. Grain will not
sell here for a quarter its value: and we can't afford to send it to
Cape Town, twenty days and back; but finery, that sells everywhere. I
gather sixty pounds the year off those poor fowls' backs--clear profit."
She showed him the granary, and told him there wasn't such another in
Africa. This farm had belonged to one of the old Dutch settlers, and
that breed had been going down this many a year. "You see, sir, Dick
and I being English, and not downright in want of money, we can't bring
ourselves to sell grain to the middlemen for nothing, so we store it,
hoping for better times, that maybe will never come. Now I'll show you
how the dam is made."
They inspected the dam all round. "This is our best friend of all," said
she. "Without this the sun would turn us all to tinder,--crops, flowers,
beasts, and folk."
"Oh, indeed," said Staines. "Then it is a pity you have not built it
more scientifically.
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