INTRODUCTION
Pauline Smith was born in the Little Karoo, a name which to most people will convey nothing. Now the Little Karoo is a region of the veld in Cape Colony. It stretches east and west, high above the sea-level, immediately south of the Zwartberg mountains. I do not know how long it is, nor does Pauline Smith, nor have I attempted to measure it out on the map; but it is very long, and very wide, and if I had been a war-correspondent in the South African War, or a star-reporter, I should have referred to the “illimitable” veld. The Little Karoo is not illimitable. However, it is vast, and certainly not little save in comparison with the Great Karoo, which lies north of the Zwartberg mountains, and with which I am not concerned.
The Little Karoo is a plain (with everywhere prospects of magnificent mountain
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