The house contained one large eating-room, a small private room, and two bedrooms.  The windows were not glazed, but closed with skins every night.  There was no chimney or stove in the house, all the cooking being carried on in a small outhouse.

The furniture was not very considerable:  a large table, a few chairs and stools, some iron pots and kettles, a set of Dutch teacups, a teapot, and a brass kettle, with a heater.  The large, brass-clasped, family Dutch Bible occupied a small table, at which the mistress of the house presided, and behind her chair were the carcasses of two sheep, suspended from a beam.

Inquiries about the news at the Cape, and details of all the information which our travelers could give, had occupied the time till breakfast was put on the table.  It consisted of mutton boiled and stewed, butter, milk, fruits, and good white bread.  Before breakfast was over the caravan arrived, and the oxen were unyoked.  Our travelers passed away two hours in going over the garden and orchards, and visiting the cattlefolds, and seeing the cows milked.  They then yoked the teams, and wishing the old boor a farewell, and thanking him for his hospitality, they resumed their journey.

“Is it always the custom here to receive travelers in this friendly way?” observed Alexander, as they rode away.

“Always,” replied Swinton; “there are no inns on the road, and every traveler finds a welcome.  It is considered a matter of course.”

“Do they never take payment?”

“Never, and it must not be offered; but they will take the value of the corn supplied to your horses, as that is quite another thing.  One peculiarity you will observe as you go along, which is, that the Dutch wife is a fixture at the little tea-table all day long.  She never leaves it, and the tea is always ready for every traveler who claims their hospitality; it is an odd custom.”

“And I presume that occasions the good woman to become so very lusty.”

“No doubt of it; the whole exercise of the day is from the bedroom to the teapot, and back again,” replied Swinton, laughing.

“One would hardly suppose that this apparently good-natured and hospitable people could have been guilty of such cruelty to the natives as Mr. Fairburn represented.”

“Many of our virtues and vices are brought prominently forward by circumstances,” replied Swinton.  “Hospitality in a thinly-inhabited country is universal, and a Dutch boor is hospitable to an excess.  Their cruelty to the Hottentots and other natives arises from the prejudices of education:  they have from their childhood beheld them treated as slaves, and do not consider them as fellow-creatures.  As Mr. Fairburn truly said, nothing demoralizes so much, or so hardens the heart of man, as slavery existing and sanctioned by law.”

“But are not the Dutch renowned for cruelty and love of money?”