everybody else she admired his uprightness, his fixity of purpose and
his devouring energy and believed him to be destined to great things.
Still, to tell the truth, which she often confessed with penitence
upon her knees, on the whole she felt happier, or at any rate more
comfortable, during his occasional absences to which allusion has been
made, when she could have her friends to tea and indulge in human gossip
without being called "worldly."

It only remains to add that her little girl Tabitha, a name she
shortened into Tabbie, was her constant joy, especially as she had no
other children. Tabbie was a bright, fair-haired little thing, clever,
too, with resource and a will of her own, an improved edition of
herself, but in every way utterly unlike her father, a fact that
secretly annoyed him. Everybody loved Tabitha, and Tabitha loved
everybody, not excepting the natives, who adored her. Between the
Kaffirs and Tabitha there was some strong natural bond of sympathy. They
understood one another.

At length came the blow.



It happened thus. Not far from the borders of Zululand but in the
country that is vaguely known as Portuguese Territory, was a certain
tribe of mixed Zulu and Basuto blood who were called the Ama-Sisa, that
is, the People of the Sisa. Now "Sisa" in the Zulu tongue has a peculiar
meaning which may be translated as "Sent Away." It is said that they
acquired this name because the Zulu kings when they exercised dominion
over all that district were in the habit of despatching large herds of
the royal cattle to be looked after by these people, or in their own