1 De Aar
2 ^Friday^
3
4 Dear Bettie,
5
6 I’m glad you’re having a good time at Miller’s Point with
7Lucie’s sweet children. I think little John will grow up like Oliver
8in character, loving & tender, & with a strong sense of justice. I had
9such a happy happy four days here with Will & Oliver. They were so
10sweet & loving, so charmed with my poor little house & house keeping.
11It was the happiest time I’ve had for fifteen years. I felt as if I
12were a child again, just like when my sister Ettie & I used to play at
13having houses & pay visits to each other, And Cron is so fond of them
14both – it was so unbrokenly happy! Boy Oliver sailed on Wednesday.
15He says he’s going to write to me every week.
16
17 I shan’t be coming to Cape Town at the earliest till the end of
18November, & perhaps not then.
19
20 Ruth Alexander has been trying all over Muizenburg to get a room for
21me, & the only one she can get without board is £12 lbs a month. In
22unreadable I have had splendid rooms ?two & splendid board for £6 a
23month. Its this shameful protection policy that makes everything so
24dear here, & makes life impossible for all but rich people with four
25or five hundred a year. How can this be a "white man’s country",
26when they do all they can to make it impossible for white people to
27live here.
28
29 Everything is being sacrificed to the land owner. He is a much greater
30evil than the mine owner. Now we have a government composed entirely
31almost of farmers or the sons of farmers.
32
33 Good bye, dear. I wish Alice had had her paper printed in pamphlet
34form, one would like to have it in a cheap form in which it could be
35widely read. Tell Alice I’m expecting her long letter!!
36
37 Olive
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