For my part I have never regretted it, although doubtless I might have done much better for myself; and if Jan did, he has been wise enough not to say so to me.

In this country most of us women must choose a man to look after--it is a burden that Heaven lays upon us--so one may as well choose him one fancies, and Jan was my fancy, though why he should have been I am sure I do not know.

Well, if he had any wits left he would speak up and tell what a blessing I have been to him, and how often my good sense has supplied the lack of his, and how I forgave him, yes, and helped him out of the scrape when he made a fool of himself with--but I will not write of that, for it makes me angry, and as likely as not I should throw something at him before I had finished, which he would not understand.
[*] It is customary among the Boers for the suitor to sit up alone at night with the object of his choice.

Should the lady favour him, she lights long candles, but if he does not please her she produces "ends," signifying thereby that she prefers his room to his company .-- Author.
No, no; I do not regret it, and, what is more, when my man dies I shall not be long behind him.

Ah! they may talk, all these wise young people; but, after all, what is there better for a woman than to love some man, the good and the bad of him together, to bear his children and to share his sorrows, and to try to make him a little better and a little less selfish and unfortunate than he would have been alone?
Poor men! Without us women their lot would be hard indeed, and how they will get on in heaven, where they are not allowed to marry, is more than I can guess.
So we married, and within a year our daughter was born and christened by the family name of Suzanne after me, though almost from her cradle the Kaffirs called her "Swallow," I am not sure why.