Trooper Joe's Little Burgher

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 77, 21 December 1901, Page 27 (Supplement)

Trooper Joe's Little Burgher

(Sl'lXIALLI TROOP UR Joe Goodfellou was tlie butt of our New Zealand boys out in South Africa. There could be no doubt of that. Whether he was guarding the portals of the camp at Karon, keeping watchful eye on the rule-breakmg youngsters of Wellington, doing sentry go on the slippery decks of the Waiwera, or sitting on a kopje looking for Boers, with more or less alert carbine, Joe wa*> evei the laughtermaker for the troop. The fact is, Joe was tired. Me had always been tired. Seems that he was born so, and, in a burst of confidence, lie had disclosed to the unfortunate trooper who did police duty on the out-ward-bound transport that he had leoeaved w hackings to the number of several hundred from his paternal relative for dereliction of duty in the potato orchard or the wheat paddock in the days of his callow childhood. One day. after canteen hour, Jon went below on fatigue, and in the lavatory, which had been fitted up as a library, he found a mate who could enter into the pmrit of his weariness, and share it with him. That man is now carrying out the principle of a life-long struggle against Ins workaday lot bv watching convicts with a gun in one of the New Zealand gaols. These two. p-entlemen of leisure had a small recess, where both lay sleeping the eleep of the loafer, out of sight of the orderly-sergeant for the day. Sergeants, finding Joe not on parade, never at stabler, and not available for fatigue, naturally concluded Joe was down with sea-sickness, and troubled him not at all One dav the Bergeant-major was doing his rounds, and his rounds happened to include the library and loafing ground of Joe and his large, lazy mate. Both were fa«t asleep, heedless of the blare of the trumpet for "stables," the frantio yells of the sergeants, and the wellknown wild shnek of the major. Even when our First New Zealand boys left the Waamate, and got their introduction to the Boers at Arundel Joe did not change his habits 01 his reputaHe was incoirigible. When the orderh-coiporal roused the sleeping camp bv a senes of kicks, Joe would send a snore and a ' go to Helensville," out of the blankets, he would sleep until the column had mounted, and had gone on the march, and would leisurely rise take his horse from the picket, and ride on the tracks of the troops until he overtook them. Then he would get a wieeing from his troop-officer, and he would" be called a "useless, lazv lump," ' a wretched exciescence," and so on Everyone liked Joe, but hated his laziness. He had shown no particular funk at Jasfontem, he had .sniped for days at Slmger's, and had not turned a hair when a bullet had knocked a hole in his canteen at New Zealand Hill, and he had retained his nerve when the brave burghers stormed that almost inaccessible hill, and killed poor Gouilay and Connell On the day on which that memorable fight was fought, Joe sat behind a rock, pottang at all and sundry specks which might be Boers, but which wero probably rocks, on the opposite lange A hawk sailed in the firmament above, at about two hundred yards range Joe rose, raised his carbine, and killed that hawk. A Boer raised his Mauser, as Joe's head came to Light and bored a neat hole in his waterbottle 'Got the hawk," he said, "by Gad, I'll keep that water-bottle' .loo was too tired to be frightened. After the hawk episode, his mates had a respect for Joe Oftentimes a man would offer to take his place on fatigue parties, respecting his weariness it those kind "fellows had but known it, that was the best way to make Joe work He worked prodigiously for a mate and a poor devil with dysentery who had heavy stones to carry to build sangers, had oau«e to ble«5 the big, powerful, lazy trooper. Sometimes,

Wkij'ten for the FiU'k Lance Christmas Si aftei a rum ration, Joe could be persuaded to sing, but he would generally knock off at about the second verse, and s»ay 'Oh, hang it, I'm tired," and go to 1 eat . The people of New Zealand will remember the battle of Sanna's Post, where Christian De Wet, with the help of the Mauser, God, and good ]uck, raked in four hundred prisoners, a couple of hundi'ed waggons, and a battery and a half of guns Joe would have been at Koorn spruit if he had w akened m time The column commenced its fatal march before sunrise, and on that March morning Joe didn't. He was snugly wrapped in blankets, and slumber, in a little hollow when the doomed troops started for Bloemfontein. He awakened gradually to the fact of his existence, and the Boer guns. His troop was almost out of sight towards Bloemfontein. He must overtake them. He stretched himself, unhooked his left spur out of his right puttee, and looked for his mare. She wasn't there. Here's a go 1 " exclaimed our kharkhero "what the devil am I to do now'" Soon a furious fusillade from both front and lear swept over Joe's grassy couch 'By cnpes that's Mausers, 'both' ways'" exclaimed Joe "What'll I do 9 I think I'll he low, and wait for 'em I might pot a few of the blasted cows." Soon he saw to the eastward, where the Thabanchu ridge loomed clear against the skyline, the first Boer, cantering easily over towards him, on a white horse, others in straggling formation appeared out of the shimmer of the veldt, and rode towards Bloemfontein and the retiring British. 'I'll ]ust wait until the brutes get closer," thought Joe, and he did. On came those straggling burghers. Joe picked out the white horse for a shot. "Pop," the little carbine spoke thehorse stopped cantering — probably, for ever. The dismounted Boer coollv picked himself up, la-\ down behind his dead hoi"M\ and waited for a remount Joe kept firing Sometimes he hit somethins more often he did not. He fired rapidly, to give the enenr\ an impression that he was a small aimv. This w r as evidently the unpiession they did get for soon they retired to a little kopie whence thev hied a few fruitless shots at nothing; in paiticular Joe was getting thirstA . His waterbottle was hot and empty. There was a tiny stream running in the bed of the spruit, and Joe rose, as if there were no Boers within a thousand miles walked to the stream, and quenched his thirst, and filled his bottle 'Pip, pop, pip pop, pippitty pop," went something, and little' spurts of smoky dust flew up close to the lazy one The burghers had seen him. Joe lay down in the spruit What'll I do now the beggars have got me set, and if I go towards Bloemfontein the commando that side 'ill see me? I'll just trust to luck." Soon Joe espied the soldier farmers tailing out from behind their kopje, and each one, as he rode into the open veldt, came galloping, hard-held, towards Joe's spruit Joe poked his nose up, levelled his carbine, and waited. No soldier can ever hit a galloping horse except by luck People who read the newspapers can kill Boeis at 2000 yards galloping — from their armchairs — but men who have used rifles all their lives cannot. Joe couldn't. He tried As the horsemen came nearei , Joe's rapidly emptying bandolier became emptier, his carbine hotter, and himself more elated at the thought of something unexpected having happened to stir him out of his torpor. As a "soune burgher in the lead arrived within easy range, Joe fired his last shot. It hit' Unlucky fluke' The hor^e doubled his legs under him, stood momentarily on his head, and brought the rider thudding to the veldt Joe. in his excitement poked his head well over the bank of the spruit It

PPLKMENT.) was what he afterwards called "tough luck." A Boer, riding out on the flank (as some of them nearly always do), sent a splendidlyaimed shot at Joe's scarlet head. The bullet' passed through the New Zealander's right cheek, and out of his left. He threw his arms up, and lay still. 'Allemachte'" sang out the burly veldt cornet, as he cantered up, "one khaki only ' I thought there was a troop in this spruit , the poor sohelm is dead " Joe opened his eves. He didn't know Dutch, and he thought "schelm" meant shoot. He protested feebly with an inert hand. The commandant spoke next, in good English "Oh, vou are not dead, already very good, we will see what can be done " The hirsute burgher introduced a trig-ger-finger into Joe's mouth, and scooped out the clotted blood. He dressed the almost invisible' wound with a mixture he carried in his saddle-bag:, and gave Joe a taste of Montagu© "dop," otheiTwise Cape smoke— realK vile brandy. Joe revived and tried his tomgue. It was all right. He worked his jaw a time or two, and got out "Thanks 1 " Where is your troop ?" asked the cornet . Joe wouldn't say . in fact, his mouth w as too sore for talking, and he would have lost his head sooner than grive the route Joe's head having been bound up he wa< mounted on a spar© horse, and taken in the direction of Ladybrand. Late that night, while still travelling under the glorious star-lit sky of that magnificent country, a young burgher rode alongside the wounded prisoner. Softlv he whispered "Khaki p " What s " Joe mumbled. "Were von ever at Bumblefontein in the Colony 9 " Yes " said Joe. "Why ?" "Don't vou remember me?" No. You're the first lot of Boers I

ever saw so close. You don't wanb to torture a poor devil by chaffing him about being a prisoner, do you? Be a man, there's a good chap, and let me a] one." "But — but, 1 am not a 'good chap'; I am a girl. Do you not remember being left behind at a farm with a lame horse 9 I am the girl who gave you coffee . my name is Japie du Toit." Joe's eyes and mouth opened to the fullest extent of which his bandages would permit. "Great Scott!" he said, eyeing her bandolier and rifle, her leggings and spurs, "you ain't fighting too, are you ?" "Yes , my father was on commando, and my mother is m Capetown. The khakis came to the farm to find my father. I told them he was fighting. They turned me out, and 6et fire to the house. Oh, but your people are so cruel." The echo of a sob came from Japie's direction, and our trooper's susceptible heart felt pity, although he had shot Japie's first horse earlier in the day, and would have counted it sport, to have s>hot her. "Well, cheer up, Miss du Tort: the war'll soon be over, and the houses will be built up again. I wish to heavens the row would shut up, and let me get home to my farm in Blowhole Gullv." 'You are a farmer? I thought English soldiers did nothing but fight !" "I'm not an English soldier, Miss du Toit. I belong to New Zealand, the finest country in the world." 'Why do you fight against the Dutch?" "Oh, just sport. Premier of our colony wanted to give the Mother Country a hand in this South African job, and half the young fellows in the land were just dying to get into the scrum. Surely, you must have heard of King Dick ? He's a bit of a warrior himself." Miss du Toit begged Joe not to acknowledge to the Commandant that he was a New Zealander, as the Boers dreaded and hated the colonial "sharpshooters." Joe promised. "Burgher du Toit '" yelled out veldt cornet, "too much yabber with that Khaki. Ride in the rear of the commando. Hear vou?" Japie turned her horse, and fell in in the rear. Joe thought about many things as he rode through the starlit night with the white horsei of the guide to follow. He thought of Japie homeless, motherless, and, perhaps, fatherless. He pictured the Tommies hacking up her piano for firewood, and boiling the "billy" with her music-stool. He fancied Japie was pretty • almost as pretty as the eirls he used to notice in Wellington on his halfyearly holiday — yes, really quite as handsome She spoke English, too — as well as ? — no better than the same Wellington girls, and what a splendid wife she'd make if she wasn't a Boer. "Let's see," he mused aloud, "Japie, that's a queer name. Japie — " "Ja?" He turned sharply. Japie was at his side. "Did the khaki call? The commandant has sent me to watch you. He tells me to shoot if vou try to run away." She turned her black eyes full on Joe. "I will not shoot," she whispered. "If vou wi°h to go, I will give

you uiy hat. You shall steal away, In the starlight the coniniaudaJit will believe it is a buighei going ou his watchpast." •And why do you care to nsk youi lite kii iiuue," he asked. Wouldn't your commandant punish you it I should escape. Yes. I should be shot.'' Then, I'll be hanged it I do. I'm English enough to hate the thought ot a woman being hurt for me, and " lie added softly, such a woman." If you could have seen Japie's pale face clearly you would ha\e noticed that the blood had mounted high up to the fair wlute forehead, the breast undei the coarse blue jacket heaved, the cainune lips parted, and those ejes, too fine for any mere male, srhstened gladlv. '•Ami, then, as nice to see as \ our own women?" Japie knew what lie would say She was unsophisticated even for a Boer ' meisje" imiSxSM. but she knew bv Joe's attitude, b\ his eager face with its setting of white bandage that she had a monopoly of his thoughts. 'Miss du Toit, you aie the loveliest woman I have ever seen , you are the bravest, and vour count lvmen should be pi oud of vou But soldienng's an awfullv risky same for a prettv woman, and by Jove, I'd give a month's pav to see vou safelv out of it." "Do you then care what becomes of an enemy ?" . 'Japie'" Joe gulped it out ' Japie I've learnt enough Scripture to know that it's the correct thing to love vour enemv I can't say that am othei of mv enemies ever made me feel that wav. but"— heie Joo became senous — "since that day at Bumblefontein I ],n\ e thought about you. dreamt about vou and have been shoved m "clink" no end of times for thinking too much and beina; late on parade It's hoinblv sudden and all that kind of thino- but will vou risk it all and promise to marry mo after tho war ?" Japie qirheied in her saddle Marrv and with a rooinok who is an enemy ° ' Allomachtp' wh.it would nn pronlo ° But- but oh what ma\ a pooi girl do 5 " '^[airv a rich man I reckon 1 vr> sot heaps of land in the Foitv-Mi'o Bush besides a house 01 two in Wellington I'll sell out and come back help

or \su could go to iNew Zealand. Japie wak agitated. The sob that Joe had noticed previously e\ulentl\ had relations. A few of tlieiu canie to keep the othei company. Soon this bia\e little biu-ghei was dropping salt teai& on her bandoliei. She was a vei} feminine buighei after ail Joe had sisters, and he liked them It Joe's sisters cried he comforted them He put his ami round then necks, and kissed them sometimes. Why not Japier He tried it. Japie die) not pull he i hor&e away, and the tears ceased somewhat. What's the trouble, Japier'" Nothing nothing, only — " heie she neailv tell off her horse tow aids Joes sade I love you, and I'll go to the woild's end tor you. I also remembei Bumblefontem " One of the straggLmg burgheis noticed the two riders in such extraordinai \ juxtaposition that he lode up to see 'what it was all about. B\ the time he got there they were apart, eiect, and silent in theii lespective saddles Both heaid the thud of a galloping hoise and looked up Just lound the little kopje theie showing cleaily against the blue-black sk\ comes a udei with head down at the top speed of his pony. He comes with the break of da\ and the queiulous rattle of distant nfle file The roois. the roois'" he veils me on us Trek 1 Tick'" Too late Fiom both flanks come ndmg the first scouts of a mobile column and as the\ clo^e in one sees that they aio khaki-clothed Tlie Boeis rush to the kop]e but mam fall in the rush The roois are there too' Joe and Japie aie nding with tlio commando Whither The\ know not Suddenly Joe's horse gives a (|iuvei ieai*i and falls shot thiousrl 1 tho shoulder Japie is ahead She iet u ins amidst singing bullets to Joe her affianced lover He is under the hoise Dead^ She eager! v feels hi« heait "Thank God not dead'" Sho fears not the coming soldiei^ Rnreh thev will not harm a woman' But a woman diessed as a man? All the commando have galloped round the corner of the kopje manv are Ivms with their faces upturned to the <skv

sleeping the last sleep Japie and liei mjuied rooo. aie left alone to face the Bntish. They come oautenng easily up Hands up!" sings out the leading man. Japie's rifle is on tlie ground, hei agonised ga&e i& on her lover, and theie is no need bo hands up." Japie explains that tlie stunned man is a Buhsliei — a prisouei oi her commando, but is not successful in showing w h\ she should sacrifice her freedom for the sake ol hei enemy. Tlie Tommies. 10II Joe's horse from off him, revive him with dirty water, and, with Japie as, a prisoner, return to the column, carrying Joe and leading horses. Joe revives to tell his tale He asks foi kind treatment for the young buigher who had befriended him. The \oung burgher" wanted kind tieatnient, too. That night Japie was stiuck clown with enteric fever, and Joe — with Ins crushed limbs and broken head— la> facing the Boer girl on the opposite shelf of an ambulance waggon. Joe daie not disclose the prisoner's sex. Ten days latei, thev reached Zwatzfetioom, whither the hospital patients entrained for Capetown. The nursing sisters took Japie in hand and discovered hei secret and her sex. Joe kept Ins mouth shut, and thought a great deal as he lav in the hospital tram. One evening the train steamed into Maitland, and the stretcher-bearers and ambulance men carried out the patients to put them in hospital. Joe hobbled out on crutches, and waited for Japie's stretcher. It came with the girl no longer in her male attire, but in the pure white of a hospital gown. Joe had never been particularly amenable to military discipline He limped forward and touched the white hand "Japie ? " ' Yes Joe " Thov said no more A doctor bustled up and ordered Joe to a tent The nurses who were in charge of the party v ore intprested One said afterwards "Did vou hear that man witli the head wound and broken ribs speak to that Boer ?irl 9 " 1i Yps and now I know whv that Boei a:irl talked about nothing but 'Joe' in her delirium " said the other Np\-t dav Joo wandered down to the hpadfivinrtprs in his blup hospital sown

and asked tor his discharge from the service. He said he wasn't much good anyhow, with a squashed side, and a hole in his head. He got his discharge, and appeared next day in the role of a civilian hospital visitor. He went to the hospital for treatment, as he said, but he always meandered towards the tent wherein "that Dutch girl" lay. He became pious, and took a Bible along, and read Japie into health and strength again. One day the nurse discovered the Contmgenter from New Zealand on his knees at the bedside, with the patient's hand in his. The treatment seemed to suit her though, and when ex-trooper Joe Goodfellow left for New Zealand a pale-faced girl said good-bye to him in perfect English and cried very bitterly indeed. There was nothing of the marauding Boer about Japie, as she tearfully begged her Joe to "oome back soon '" Those three words were the sole cause of Joe's extremely short stay in Wellington His friends feted him. and spoke of his splendid loyalty in wanting to go back to fight the Boers. Joe went, after selling up his little farm in the Bush and his two or three cottages up near Mount Victoria. His "burgher" was on the wharf at Table Bay. * » * In the ' Cape Times," of August 31st last, appeais the following marriage notice "At St Mark's Anglican Church, Capetown, by the Rev. William Worrall, Japie du Toit, only daughter of Jan du Toit late of Bumblespruit, to Joseph, third son of Joshua Goodfellow, of Waiwikiti, New Zealand." Joe is getting some chaff from his pals who have not seen his wife. I hare just had a letter from him, asking me to give 'the boys of the First" his very best wishes for "A Merry Christmas and a Happv New Tear." He thinks the settlement of the Boer Question is in the hands of marrying c jldiers. He recommends them to follow lus example. He further remarks that he is getting over "that tired feeling now." but adds, "Yet, hang it all, it was a fine birthday present after all, for if I hadn't slept right on on the morning of Sanna's Post I'd have missed marrving the best little wife in the uorld."