"Life as governess on farm" Read the full letter
Letter Reference | Olive Schreiner: Mary Sauer MSC 26/2.11.87 |
Archive | National Library of South Africa, Special Collections, Cape Town |
Epistolary Type | Letter |
Letter Date | 15 March 1895 |
Address From | The Homestead, Kimberley, Northern Cape |
Address To | |
Who To | Mary Sauer nee Cloete |
Other Versions | Rive 1987: 248-9 |
Permissions | Please read before using or citing this transcription |
Legend |
The Project is grateful to the National Library of South Africa (NLSA), Cape Town, for kindly allowing us to transcribe this Olive Schreiner letter, which is part of its Special Collections.
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1
The Homestead
2 March 15 / 95.
3
4 Darling Mary
5
6 I am so disappointed Cron saw so little of you, & was not able to go
7up the mountain. He said he felt too anxious about me to go on staying
8after the congress was over. But I shan't be ill yet for a long time
9I'm sure. How it seems to drag on at the last!
10
11 Cron was so delighted with the children especially Magda. She must be
12lovely now.
13
14 I'm so glad you are feeling happier my dear one. It will be beautiful
15to see you again. Next summer I shall try to come down to Cape Town,
16for a couple of months, because I don't think the dry heat here is
17good for little babies, & I'll try to hire a cottage or get into a
18good boarding house at Rondebosch. ?D I had a letter from Cecil Boyle
19yesterday. He says he seems never really to have got over the effects
20of his fall in the hunting field.
21
22 I seem so heavy & dull & stupid. I am just enjoying trotting about the
23house, & cooking jam & making new bed curtains, but I seem to have no
24mental energy. I'm so sorry, because I'm afraid the baby will be so
25placid & heavy, & I like excitable lively children. Cron says its
26quite sure to be excitable & lively enough any how, but that's only to
27comfort me! I do hope that poor young thing will get better. I am
28always so anxious lest the doctor if he has to use instruments with me,
29 might hurt the baby's head or injure it in some way. But they say he
30is very skilful. He's a young man under 30, & I don't think one who
31would ever trouble himself o about smaller complaints, but if he had a
32big surgical case he would rise to it, & I should have confidence in
33him.
34
35 Good bye, dear one
36
37 Your stupid
38 Olive
39
2 March 15 / 95.
3
4 Darling Mary
5
6 I am so disappointed Cron saw so little of you, & was not able to go
7up the mountain. He said he felt too anxious about me to go on staying
8after the congress was over. But I shan't be ill yet for a long time
9I'm sure. How it seems to drag on at the last!
10
11 Cron was so delighted with the children especially Magda. She must be
12lovely now.
13
14 I'm so glad you are feeling happier my dear one. It will be beautiful
15to see you again. Next summer I shall try to come down to Cape Town,
16for a couple of months, because I don't think the dry heat here is
17good for little babies, & I'll try to hire a cottage or get into a
18good boarding house at Rondebosch. ?D I had a letter from Cecil Boyle
19yesterday. He says he seems never really to have got over the effects
20of his fall in the hunting field.
21
22 I seem so heavy & dull & stupid. I am just enjoying trotting about the
23house, & cooking jam & making new bed curtains, but I seem to have no
24mental energy. I'm so sorry, because I'm afraid the baby will be so
25placid & heavy, & I like excitable lively children. Cron says its
26quite sure to be excitable & lively enough any how, but that's only to
27comfort me! I do hope that poor young thing will get better. I am
28always so anxious lest the doctor if he has to use instruments with me,
29 might hurt the baby's head or injure it in some way. But they say he
30is very skilful. He's a young man under 30, & I don't think one who
31would ever trouble himself o about smaller complaints, but if he had a
32big surgical case he would rise to it, & I should have confidence in
33him.
34
35 Good bye, dear one
36
37 Your stupid
38 Olive
39
Notation
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.
Rive's (1987) version omits part of this letter and is also in a number of respects incorrect.