The Little Karoo/Chapter 7
VII: Ludovitje
ΟUT on the stoep in the moonlight Alida spoke of her son Ludovitje. See now, she said, how they shine in the night, like stars on the land, the little white-flowers in Ludovic's garden. Under the orange-trees he planted them, and always he said: "For grandfather's grave I will grow them. . . ." And now they grow there for his.
See how it was with my darling! Weak he was from the day he was born, and weak he was all the days of his life, but who was there in all the Platkops district that walked so close with God? When they said to me in Platkops dorp: "Surely Alida the child is now also weak in his mind!” it was as if my heart must break to hear them. And in the market-place I cried: "May God forgive us that we have not all such weakness! Full of the grace and glory of God is his mind, and all that know the child may see it." And I said to them also: "True it is that Ludovitje goes but seldom to school because of the fever that comes so often upon him, but long ago he has learnt to read, and his book it is the Bible. Yes! The Bible is his reading-book, and tell me now, for stronger minds where is there a greater?"
Yes, so it was that I spoke with them in the market-place. And afterwards, when Maqwasi the Kaffir came many times I thought of it.
The year that grandfather died and Ludovitje planted his garden, that same year it was that my husband Piet got a gang of Kaffirs from the Tali district to build him a dam in the Credo mountains. Far up in the mountains they built it, leading the water from there in furrows to our lands in the valley. Piet had often to go to the dam, to see the Kaffirs at their work, and always when he could Ludovitje would go with him. Early, early in the morning they would go, riding together in the stump-cart up our long ravine that lies so beautiful at the foot of the Credo mountains. There was no road for them to go but a track only that the Kaffirs had made, and so rough it was that as they drove the cart would toss and swing like a branch in a storm, and the little kopjes would dance before their eyes. And always then Ludovitje would sing to his father the 114th psalm—"The mountains skipped like rams and the little hills like young sheep." Yes, when they sing that psalm in Platkops church[1] I see again my darling riding to the mountains with his father.
The Kaffirs that worked for Piet were such big strong men as do not belong to our part of the colony. They came from far up-country and they did not yet believe in the Living God, the Heavenly Father. But when Ludovitje came among them, singing his psalm, they would stop in their work to listen to him. And quickly they came also to sing it. Yes, these men that did not yet believe in the Living God, the Heavenly Father, came so, as they builded our dam, to sing the 114th psalm—"Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, Who turned the hard rock into a standing water and the flint-stone into a springing well."
So they would sing, and Maqwasi, that was the head of the gang, would say to the child Ludovitje: "Tell us now! Who is this King of Jacob? And where is now this springing well?"
And Ludovitje would tell him. Of the wanderings of the Children of Israel he would tell him, and of God's guidance in the Wilderness. Of God's goodness and mercy to those that love Him he would tell him, and of the pure River of Water of Life that He has given us.
Maqwasi would say to him: "Where runs now this River of Water of Life?"
And Ludovitje would answer: "Clear as crystal is the River of Water of Life and close by the throne of God and of the Lamb it runs."
Yes, so it was that my darling spoke with Maqwasi the Kaffir, and always he would say to me: "Wait now! Maqwasi will yet be a pearl in my crown."
There came a day, when the Kaffirs had nearly finished their work, that Ludovitje grew ill again of his fever and Piet went to the dam alone. When he saw that the child was not with his father Maqwasi came to Piet and said: "Master! How goes it with the child?"
And Piet said to him: "The child lies now so sick on his bed that there is not one of us that knows how it will go with him."
Maqwasi said to him: "Master! Let Master now give Maqwasi leave to go to the child."
And Piet answered him: "Go then!"
So it was that Maqwasi put down his tools and ran from the mountains down the long ravine to our farm in the valley. All the way from the mountains he ran, and presently he stood in the door of the room where Ludovitje was lying. Gently he came, but Ludovitje heard him, and sitting up in his bed he held out his arms and cried: "Maqwasi! Maqwasi! Clear as crystal is the River of Water of Life and close by the throne of God and of the Lamb it runs. Can you not yet believe, Maqwasi?"
And Maqwasi, standing there with tears in his eyes, answered him: "Master! Now I believe."
Yes, God knows how it was, but from that moment Maqwasi believed.
All that day, and the next day also, Maqwasi stayed with us at the farm. When the young doctor came the next morning from Platkops dorp he thought at first that Ludovitje was better. But Ludovitje himself said to Maqwasi: "This night I shall see my King."
All that day the people came from the farms around us to see the child, for all through the valley it was known already that Ludovitje had saved Maqwasi the Kaffir and that he now lay dying. When the house was now so full of people that many were out also on the stoep there came the teacher from the farm school and all the scholars with her.
The teacher asked him: "Shall I sing to you, Ludovitje?"
And Ludovitje answered: "Sing now the 114th psalm, and Maqwasi, that is the pearl of my crown, will sing it also."
And she began to sing, and the scholars and Maqwasi with her, and all the people that were in the house and on the stoep.
And when they had sung "Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob Who turned the hard rock into a standing water, and the flintstone into a springing well," Ludovitje, who lay with his head on my breast, cried out aloud: "A dove. A dove! See now, a dove in the window!"
And we looked, but could see no dove. And Ludovitje cried again: "To the River of Water of Life he flies before me! I come, Lord Jesus! I come! I come!"
And he half rose from the bed and held out his arms. And falling again, with his head on my breast, he died.
That night when the child lay in his coffin Maqwasi came to Piet and said: "Master! Let me now dig a grave for the child on the kopje that lies behind the house and looks towards the mountains. Surely it is towards the mountains that the child would lie." Piet said to him: "The kopje is clay-stone, and who now can dig a grave through clay-stone?"
Maqwasi answered: "Have I not dug for Master a dam in the mountains, and can I not now, with my tools, dig a grave for the child in the clay-stone?"
So he dug the grave. Like a little room in the clay-stone he dug it, and there we laid the child.
When Maqwasi's work at the dam was done and it was now time for him to go back to the Tali district, Piet went to him and asked him to stay. "Work now for me on the farm, Maqwasi," he said, "and surely for the sake of the child I will deal well with you."
But Maqwasi answered him: "Master! For the sake of the child to my own people I must go. To tell them of the River of Water of Life. I must go, that they also may be pearls in his crown."
Yes, back to his own people Maqwasi went, to speak with them of the River of Water of Life. And before he went Piet said to him: "See now, Maqwasi! All men must die, and what is death that we should fear it? Dig for us now, before you go, graves for my wife and me that at the last we may lie one on each side of the child. For it may be that when we come to die there will be no man on all the farm that can dig through the clay-stone like Maqwasi the Kaffir, and where then shall we lie?"
So Maqwasi dug for us graves in the clay-stone. One on each side of the child he dug them, and left us, and went again to his own people, spreading the Word of God among them.
- ↑ Metrical version used in Dutch church.