THE THING THAT HATH BEEN

Title: Cinderella in the South Twenty-Five South African Tales

Author: Arthur Shearly Cripps

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

E-text prepared by Charles Klingman

CINDERELLA IN THE SOUTH

New York Agents
Longmans, Green & Co.
Fourth Avenue and 30th Street

CINDERELLA IN THE SOUTH

South African Tales

by

ARTHUR SHEARLY CRIPPS

Author of 'Faerylands Forlorn,'
'Lyra Evangelistica,' Etc.

Oxford
B. H. Blackwell, Broad Street
MCMXVIII

To C. H. CRIPPS

FRIEND AND KINSMAN.

Grace me these veld spoils rude with name of thine!
Mine's been the luck not thine these long years now
To tread the veld. What other use had'st thou,
Hunter and Horseman, made of chances mine!
Nor horns nor heads have I to give to thee,
Yet spoils of sorts veld spoils I bring with me.

A. S. C.

Eukeldoorn, Mashonaland.

October 11th, 1917.

CONTENTS

PROLOGUE

THE THING THAT HATH BEEN

NEW LIGHT ON AN OLD CHAMPION

FUEL OF FIRE

'LA BELLE DAME'

THE SCENTED TOWN

THE PLACE OF PILGRIMAGE

THE LEPER WINDOWS

THE BURNT OFFERING

EIGHTY-EIGHT IN LAVENDER

DIVINATION

JULIAN

THE DOUBLE CABIN

INTELLIGENCE

A CREDIT BALANCE

MAN'S AIRY NOTIONS

PISGAH

A LION IN THE WAY

AS TREES WALKING

THE BLACK DEATH

AN OLD-WORLD SCRUPLE

FOR HIS COUNTRY'S GOOD

LE ROI EST MORT

THE RIDING OF THE RED HORSE

THREE AND AFRICA

OUR LADY OF THE LAKE

EPILOGUE

PROLOGUE

[AFRICA AND HER SISTERS.]

Some fifteen years now I have been her guest,
For all this land's hers, tho' she does not reign.
She's but a ward, at what late age she'll gain
Her freedom and her kingdom, it were best
To risk no surmise rash. E'en now she's drest
Sometimes in skins. Give her ground-nuts and grain,
Cattle and thatch'd hut, then she'll not complain,
She's happier-hearted than her Sisters blest.

Her Sisters blest! Of them what shall I say?
I like them better when they keep away,
And toil in their own lands, not loll in hers.
They use her ill. She's not so old as they.
She drudges for them. But her youth confers
A charm on her they've lost these many years.