Introduction
was only an annual event. At the period of these stories Oudtshoorn had achieved a resident minister and a quarterly communion service.
On the veld Pauline Smith was taught by governesses. At the age of twelve she migrated to England to be educated. An early age to leave an environment, but the impressions had been made—deep, intense, lasting. The young girl carried away with her sufficient material for a lifetime of writing. And since, on more than one occasion, she has refreshed and strengthened her knowledge of Karoo life on the spot. Oudtshoorn rapidly developed, and is now the most important station of the railway line between Port Elizabeth and Cape Town.
Miss Smith’s first literary work was done at school—sketches of Karoo life for children; not much prescience was needed to see that the author of these sketches would soon be producing sketches of Karoo life for adults. Her first published work, however,
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