Between Snow and Fire — page 244: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

CHAPTER XXXVII. “IT IS THE VOICE OF AN ORACLE.” SWAANEPOEL’S HOEK, poor Tom Carhayes’ other farm, was situated in the division of Somerset East, somewhere between the Great and Little Fish Rivers. It was rather an out-of-the-way place, lying in a mountainous district, sparsely inhabited and only reached by rough wheel-tracks through narrow, winding foorts. But the scenery was wild and romantic to a degree. The bold sweep of bush-grown slopes, the lofty heights culminating in red iron-bound krantzes whose inaccessible hedges afforded nesting place for colonies of aasvogeis, the thunder of the mountain torrént pent up between black rocky walls where the maiden-hair fern hung in solid festoons from évery crack and cranhy, the cheerful and abundant sounds of bird and animal life— all this rendered the place a wonderfully pleasant and at- tractive, if somewhat out-of-the-way, residence. To Eanswyth Carhayes, however, this very isolation con- stituted an additional charm. ‘The solemn grandeur of the soaring mountains, the hush of the seldom trodden valleys, conveyed to her mind, after the bustle and turmoil of the crowded frontier settlement, the perfection of peace. She felt that she could spend her whole life on this beautiful spot. And it was her own. She had only once before visited the place—shortly after her marriage—and then had spent but three or four days there. Its beauties had failed at that time to strike her imagination. Now it was different. All the world was a Paradise, It seemed that there was nothing left in life for her to desire. ‘The house was a fair size, almost too large for the over- seer and his family. That worthy had asked Eustace whether Mrs. Carhayes would prefer that they should vacate it. There was a substantial outbuilding, used—or rather only half of it was used—as a store, and a saddle and harness room. They could make themselves perfectly snug 226