Then _Oom_ Jacob went mad with rage, and the young Baas Frank told him that one of the Kafir boys had said to him that he had heard my father sell them to the Basutu for sheep which he was to pay to us in the summer.

It was a lie, but Baas Frank hated my father because of something about a woman--a Zulu girl.
"Next morning when we were asleep, just at daybreak, _Oom_ Jacob Muller and Baas Frank and two Kafirs came into the hut and pulled us out, the old man my uncle, my father, my mother, and myself, and tied us up to four mimosa-trees with buffalo-hide reims.

Then the Kafirs went away, and _Oom_ Jacob asked my father where the cattle were, and my father told him that he did not know.

Then _Oom_ Jacob took off his hat and said a prayer to the Big Man in the sky, and when he had done Baas Frank came up with a gun and stood quite close and shot my father dead, and he fell forward and hung quiet over the reim, his head touching his feet.
Then he loaded the gun again and shot the old man my uncle, and he slipped down dead, and his hands stuck up in the air against the reim.
Next he shot my mother, but the bullet did not kill her, and cut the reim, and she ran away, and he ran after her and killed her.

When that was done he came back to shoot me; but I was young then, and did not know that it is better to be dead than to live like a dog, and I cried and prayed for mercy while he was loading the gun.
"But the Baas only laughed, and said he would teach Hottentots how to steal cattle, and old _Oom_ Jacob prayed out loud to the Big Man and said he was very sorry for me, but it was the dear Lord's will.