"Am going to meet Rhodes, more solitary in this country than you can conceive" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner MSC 26/2.16/14 |
Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
Epistolary Type | Extract |
Letter Date | 8 July 1896 |
Address From | The Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape |
Address To | Karree Kloof, Northern Cape |
Who To | S.C. (‘Cron’) Cronwright-Schreiner |
Other Versions | |
Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
Legend |
The Extracts of Letters to Cronwright-Schreiner were produced by Cronwright-Schreiner in preparing The Life and The Letters of Olive Schreiner. They appear on slips of paper in his writing, taken from letters that were then destroyed; many of these extracts have also been edited by him. They are artefacts of his editorial practices and their relationship to original Schreiner letters cannot now be gauged. They should be read with considerable caution for the reasons given. Cronwright-Schreiner has written the date, where it was sent from and the place it was sent to onto this extract, and also the bird was a dalk-breekker or kitchen-bird.
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…I’m glad it was nice at Cradock & at dear old John’s (the
2farm)… Don’t trouble about bringing biltong… Mother (her mother)
3writes most lovingly about you… Isn’t it wonderful the change that
4came over her the moment L.O. left… Do you know what nearly happened
5this afternoon! A little tame ?cock-o-veet, that sings like you or I
6do, came and sat in the kitchen, a little beautiful bird, brick dust
7colour underneath. Teeney & Langalijne had shut the door and were
8actually trying to catch it. But I drove them out & opened the kitchen
9window. It sat for a little time in terror on the top shelf, & then
10flew out & away with such a burst of evident joy! It was beautiful. I
11asked Teeney what they called it, he said “Das de Vogel vat so for
12se maat roop”, & then he whistled just like you whistle. I think it
13was my little hubby came to visit me in (the) shape of a bird. I think
14that wicked ?fiscol frightens the little birds away, but this morning
15there were four ?Na-Nagua doves here this morning & two quick-?
16stooges…
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2farm)… Don’t trouble about bringing biltong… Mother (her mother)
3writes most lovingly about you… Isn’t it wonderful the change that
4came over her the moment L.O. left… Do you know what nearly happened
5this afternoon! A little tame ?cock-o-veet, that sings like you or I
6do, came and sat in the kitchen, a little beautiful bird, brick dust
7colour underneath. Teeney & Langalijne had shut the door and were
8actually trying to catch it. But I drove them out & opened the kitchen
9window. It sat for a little time in terror on the top shelf, & then
10flew out & away with such a burst of evident joy! It was beautiful. I
11asked Teeney what they called it, he said “Das de Vogel vat so for
12se maat roop”, & then he whistled just like you whistle. I think it
13was my little hubby came to visit me in (the) shape of a bird. I think
14that wicked ?fiscol frightens the little birds away, but this morning
15there were four ?Na-Nagua doves here this morning & two quick-?
16stooges…
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