



Produced by Sue Asscher





THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN FARM

by (AKA Ralph Iron) Olive Schreiner




Preface.

I have to thank cordially the public and my critics for the reception
they have given this little book.

Dealing with a subject that is far removed from the round of English
daily life, it of necessity lacks the charm that hangs about the ideal
representation of familiar things, and its reception has therefore been
the more kindly.

A word of explanation is necessary. Two strangers appear on the scene,
and some have fancied that in the second they have again the first, who
returns in a new guise. Why this should be we cannot tell; unless there
is a feeling that a man should not appear upon the scene, and then
disappear, leaving behind him no more substantial trace than a mere
book; that he should return later on as husband or lover, to fill some
more important part than that of the mere stimulator of thought.

Human life may be painted according to two methods. There is the stage
method. According to that each character is duly marshalled at first,
and ticketed; we know with an immutable certainty that at the right
crises each one will reappear and act his part, and, when the curtain
falls, all will stand before it bowing. There is a sense of satisfaction
in this, and of completeness. But there is another method--the method of
the life we all lead. Here nothing can be prophesied. There is a strange
coming and going of feet. Men appear, act and re-act upon each other,
and pass away. When the crisis comes the man who would fit it does not
return. When the curtain falls no one is ready. When the footlights are
brightest they are blown out; and what the name of the play is no one
knows