"Good again. And you, Ralph?"

"I say, mother, that I will not budge from this place unless I am
ordered to go, and if I do go, I will come back for Suzanne. I love you
all, and with you I wish to live and nowhere else."

"Nay, Ralph," I answered sighing, "if once you go you will never come
back, for out yonder you will find a new home, new interests, and,
perchance, new loves. Well, though nobody has thought of me in this
matter, I have a voice in it, and I will speak for myself. That lad
yonder has been a son to me for many years, and I who have none love him
as such. He is a man as we reckon in this country, and he does not wish
to leave us any more than we wish him to go. Moreover, he loves Suzanne,
and Suzanne loves him, and I believe that the God who brought them
together at first means them to be husband and wife, and that such love
as they bear to each other will give them more together than any wealth
or rank can bring to them apart. Therefore I say, husband, let our son,
Ralph, say here with us and marry our daughter, Suzanne, decently and in
due season, and let their children be our children, and their love our
love."

"And how about the Scotchmen who are coming with power to take him
away?"

"Do you and Ralph go to the bush-veldt with the cattle to-morrow," I
answered, "and leave me to deal with the Scotchmen."

"Well," said Jan, "I consent, for who can stand up against so many
words, and the Lord knows that to lose Ralph would have broken my heart