The covenant - James A. Michener [406]
With a great slap of his hand on Frank's leg, De Groot said, 'I remember the day at Thaba Nchu. A smous came up from Graaff-Reinet with two packets. One for Van Doorn, one for my father. But my father had been killed by Mzilikazi. So the packet was given to me, and I can remember tearing it open and seeing the new bills, English bills, and I didn't like them. And do you know what I did with that money, young man?'
Frank said, 'I can't guess,' and the old general said, 'I saved it. Year after year I saved it, and in 1881, when we fought the English at Majuba, I spent it all to outfit my own commando. English money fighting English soldiers. I liked that.'
'Was the fighting hardat Majuba?'
'Fighting is always hard, especially against you English. Your officers are stupid but your men are heroic.'
'Were you in command of the Boer forces?' Before the old man could respond, Frank added, 'I mean, they speak of you as one of the heroes of Majuba.'
With a big forefinger De Groot poked at his guest. 'No one is ever in command of Boers. Each man is his own general.'
'But everyone speaks of you as the general.'
'Yes. I raised the commando. And at night I asked if this or that approach might not be best. But if I ever gave an order, someone would have asked, "And who in hell are you?" And that,' he said, punctuating his remarks with his finger, 'would be a very . . .' He fumbled for a word and asked Van Doorn for help, using Dutch.
'Relevant,' Van Doorn suggested.
'Yes, that would be a relevant question. "Who in hell are you to give orders?"'
'How did you fight the battle?'
'Our Bible tells us that one Boer can defeat one thousand Canaanites. So we did it, that's how.'
'I don't remember any mention of Boers in my Bible,' Frank said, to which De Groot replied, 'That's your Bible.'
For nine days Frank studied these two families, and as he watched them in action he concluded that people like these would never conform to Mr. Rhodes' plans for them. When his departure neared, the Van Doorns announced that the De Groots would come over for a farewell supper with a surprise at the end, and Frank was perched on the stoep, trying to guess which little girl was Anna and which Sannah, when they suddenly cried, 'Here comes Ouma!' and Frank looked across the lake to see the De Groots approaching.
They came in an old cart pulled by one tired horse. General Paulus sat in front, the great bearded patriarch usurping the entire seat, while Sybilla sat deferentially behind, a big woman crammed into a little space. She sat not on a seat, but in the well of the cart on a pile of animal skins, and Saltwood had to suppress a grin, for she resembled a Queen Victoria of the veld, regal and rugged and triumphant.
When he went to the cart, this impression was reinforced, for she said quietly, 'How pleased we are to be with you again,' and he would have helped her down except that General de Groot calmly intruded, extending his hands as if it was his privilege, and his alone, to help this woman.
It was a substantial supper, one of Mevrou van Doorn's massive offerings of lamb stew, and as it ended, each of the four children, and the old people, too, began to show excitement, which reached a peak when Jakob went into the kitchen, reappearing with a brown-gold pot over whose rim showed a crusty pudding marked with citron, cherries and raisins. 'Bread pudding, style of Van Doorn,' Johanna cried, and when Frank tasted it he complimented Mevrou van Doorn.
'Not me! My man!' And she nodded at her husband, reverently touching the old ceramic pot as she did.
'Yes, in our family the men make the pudding,' Jakob said. 'This pot, 1680 maybe. Made in China, no doubt. Came over the mountains. Two farms were burned with it on the shelf. You ever hear of Blaauwkrantz? Well, it went through fire there, too.'
'We're an old people,' General de Groot said. 'We've been here a long time.'
After the meal the family