Guanya Pau

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891 edition. Excerpt: ... ■chapter IV. KAI KUNDU'S VISIT. On the following day, Guanya Pau being now near her sixteenth birthday, within a few weeks of the time when her master would come to take her to his home, he came to the GregreeBush to visit her. His name was Kai Kundu, because of his short, stumpy form; he was homely beyond description, with nose and lips twenty-five per cent. in excess of the average African, with a face perpetually bearing the expression "I - don't-care - which-way-thewind-blows, I am Kai Kundu, the short, the ugly, the clumsy, Kai Kundu." He made an attempt to seat himself on the mat beside Guanya Pau, who immediately rose, went into the adjoining room, brought a bamboo chair, which she set at a more than respectable distance from the mat, thus avoiding all possible means of proximity between herself and his lordship. Looking up into her face with one of his characteristic grins, which made him look like a full-grown chimpanzee, he said: "Guanya Pau, I understand it all, you are yet young and inexperienced; your fair complexion has not yet been burnt by the sun's heat, nor your hands hardened by work. Your action is like that of many other maidens." Then thinking that she was persuaded of the truth of his assertion, because she made no reply, he again made an effort to bring his chair near, only to be told peremptorily that if he didn't keep to the distance she had assigned him, she would report him to the authorities for indecorum. Finding argument useless, Kai Kundu made himself comfortable, and grinned more than ever. The two together certainly resembled Dr. Talmage's "hawk courting a dove." Finally, he mustered up enough courage to tell her his purpose for coming to see her, winding up with "I have watched and cared for you,...