FLOWER O' THE PEACH

CHAPTER I

It was late in the afternoon when the sheep movedoff, and the west was full of the sunset. Theyflowed out from the cactus-ringed fold like abroadening trickle of milk, with their mild idiot faces setsouthwards towards the sparse pastures beyond thehorizon, and the dust from their feet hung over themin a haze of soft bronze. Half-way along the pathbetween the house and the dam, Paul turned to watchtheir departure, dwelling with parted lips on the picturethey made as they drifted forth to join themselves withearth and sky in a single mellowness of hue.

The little farmhouse with its outbuildings, and the oneother house that reared its steep roof within eyeshot ofthe farm, were behind him as he stood; nothing interruptedthe suave level of the miles stretching forth, likea sluggish sea, to the sky-line. In its sunset mood, itsbarren brown, the universal tint into which its poorscrub faded and was lost to the eye, was touched towarmth and softened; it was a wilderness with a soul.The tall boy, who knew it in all its aspects for aneighbor, stood gazing absorbed as the sheep came to a pause,with the lean, smooth-coated dog at their heels, andwaited for the shepherd who was to drive them throughthe night. He was nearing seventeen years of age, andthe whole of those years had been spent on the Karoo,in the native land of dreams. The glamour of it wason his face, where the soft childish curves were not yetbroken into angles, and in his gaze, as his steadyunconscious eyes pored on the distance, deep withforeknowledge of the coming of the night.

"Baas!"

Paul closed his lips and turned absently. The oldblack shepherd was eager to linger out a minute or twoin talk before he went forth to his night-long solitude.He stood, a bundle of shabby clothes, with his strong oldface seamed with gray lines and the corners of the eyesbunched into puckers, waiting in the hope that theyoung baas might be tempted into conversation. Hecarried a little armory of smooth, wire-bound sticks, hisequipment against all the perils of the unknown, andsmiled wistfully, ingratiatingly, up into Paul's face....