A very small stock for a vee-boor, or South African grazier.
Withal our field-cornet was not unhappy.

He looked around upon his three brave sons--Hans, Hendrik, and Jan.

He looked upon his cherry-cheeked, flaxen-haired daughter, Gertrude, the very type and image of what her mother had been.

From these he drew the hope of a happier future.
His two eldest boys were already helps to him in his daily occupations; the youngest would soon be so likewise.

In Gertrude,--or "Truey," as she was endearingly styled,--he would soon have a capital housekeeper.
He was not unhappy therefore; and if an occasional sigh escaped him, it was when the face of little Truey recalled the memory of that Gertrude who was now in heaven.
But Hendrik Von Bloom was not the man to despair.