{"product_id":"2940013446915","title":"The Vee-Boers","description":"CHAPTER ONE.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eON THE KAROO.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA vast plain, seemingly bounded but by the horizon; treeless, save where\u003cbr\u003ea solitary _cameel-doorn_ [Note 1] spreads its feathered leaves, or a\u003cbr\u003eclump of arborescent aloes, mingled with rigid-stemmed euphorbias,\u003cbr\u003ebreaks the continuity of its outline.  These types of desert vegetation\u003cbr\u003ebut proclaim its sterility, which is further evinced by tufts of\u003cbr\u003ewhiteish withered grass, growing thinly between them.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOver it three waggons are moving; immense vehicles with bodies above\u003cbr\u003efour yards in length, surrounded by an arching of bamboo canes covered\u003cbr\u003ewith canvas.  To each is attached eight pairs of long-horned oxen, with\u003cbr\u003ea driver seated on the box, who flourishes a whip, in length like a\u003cbr\u003efishing-rod; another on foot alongside, wielding the terrible _jambok_,\u003cbr\u003ewhile at the head of the extended team marches the \"foreloper,\" _reim_\u003cbr\u003ein hand, guiding the oxen along the track.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHalf a score horsemen ride here and there upon the flanks, with three\u003cbr\u003eothers in advance; and bringing up the rear is a drove of milch cows--\u003cbr\u003esome with calves at the foot--and a flock of _fat-tailed_ sheep, their\u003cbr\u003etails full fifty pounds in weight, and trailing on the ground.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe cows and sheep are in charge of ten or a dozen dark-skinned\u003cbr\u003eherdsmen, most of them all but naked; while a like number of large\u003cbr\u003ewolfish-looking dogs completes the list of living things visible outside\u003cbr\u003ethe waggons.  But, were the end curtains raised, under their tilts would\u003cbr\u003ebe seen women with children--of both sexes and all ages--in each the\u003cbr\u003emembers of a single family, its male head excepted.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOf the last there are three, corresponding to the number of the waggons,\u003cbr\u003eof which they are the respective proprietors--the three men riding in\u003cbr\u003eadvance.  Their names, Jan Van Dorn, Hans Blom, and Klaas Rynwald.  All\u003cbr\u003eDutch names, and Dutch are they who bear them, at least by descent, for\u003cbr\u003ethe scene _is_ Southern Africa, and they are _Boers_.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNot of the ordinary class, though, as may be told by their large\u003cbr\u003eaccompaniment of unattached cattle and sheep--over a hundred of the\u003cbr\u003eformer, and three times as many of the latter.  These, with other signs\u003cbr\u003ewell-known to South Africans, proclaim them to be Vee-Boers [Note 2].","brand":"SAP","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079451590896,"sku":"2940013446915","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013446915_p0.jpg?v=1763581358","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013446915","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}