It is nasty for any one to feel that he is disliked, much more so if he has done nothing to incur that disagreeable sentiment. Ned Romer was guiltless of anything as far as he knew. He was the most generous and happy of the party. As yet he had never entertained a single animosity towards a human being. Everything that he saw entertained him and provided him with amusement. He had no fear, and tried to make friends with every one. Besides, he felt specially obliged, in many ways, to Stephanus Groblaar, and therefore would have sacrificed a good deal to be his friend. But a new instinct had been roused in his nature by those parting words of Santa. The first seeds of suspicion were sown in that generous soil. This seed would grow until it destroyed the unwise trust of boyhood, and make of him a vigilant and discriminating man in the future. Truly he had left adolescence behind him when his horse walked under the shady oak avenues of Stellenbosch. Nothing occurred, however, to mar their harmony as they moved slowly upward through the populated portions of Cape Colony. Day after day went along with varying incidents and amusements. When they were able they spent the night at some friendly settler's homestead, and were most hospitably welcomed and entertained. These were, without exception, Dutch farmers, and old friends of the Groblaars, so that they saw little enough of the British members of the community. They had mastered enough of the Cape Dutch and "Kitchen Kaffir" idioms to understand what was said, as well as express themselves to be understood by those they were so constantly thrown amongst by this time. As every one was alike free and kind, if a bit rough and homely, they took the most favourable impression possible of this industrious if slow-going and bigoted race. It was not nice to hear Englishmen so constantly spoken about with such contempt as a nation of cowards and oppressors; yet as the Boers gave their opinions good-naturedly, and exhibited such an utter want of knowledge in their statements, the lads could not help laughing also as they listened.