LITMIR.BIZ

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lantern picks up Gideon van der Merwe in a police uniform on the opposite side of the stage. He switches off his lantern and bolts off right, climbs up the back of the cliff structure and comes tumbling noisily down the front of it, where he lies stunned. Gideon approaches him diffidently and waits for signs of life.

Gideon:	Oom Schalk, I was wondering if you would lend me your lamp.
Oom Schalk:	(Struggling painfully to a sitting position) You can have my lamp, but you must be careful. It’s worse for a policeman to get caught breaking the law than for an ordinary man.
Gideon:	No, I don’t want to go shooting with the lamp. I want to… (He pauses and then laughs nervously) It seems silly to say it, Oom Schalk, but perhaps you’ll understand. I have come to look for a juba plant. I need it for my studies. For my third-class sergeant’s examination. And it will soon be midnight, and I can’t find one of those plants anywhere.
Oom Schalk:	(Standing up and handing him the lamp) They grow high up on the krantzes. You could even try this krantz where I came down. But I wouldn’t go the short way if I were you – it’s too steep. There’s an easier way round there. (He indicates off right)
Gideon:	Juba plants have berries on them, don’t they, Oom Schalk?
Oom Schalk:	Little red berries. You can’t miss them.
Gideon:	Thank you very much, Oom Schalk. (Gideon exits right)
Oom Schalk:	(To the audience) You are probably wondering what his real reason is for looking for a juba plant at midnight under the full moon. Well, as everybody in the Marico knows, if you are a young man, and you are anxious for a girl to fall in love with you, all you have to do is to squeeze the juice of the juba berry into her coffee. They say that after the girl has drunk the juba juice she begins to forget all sorts of things. She forgets that your forehead is rather low, and that your ears stick out, and that your mouth is too big. She even forgets having told you the week before last that she wouldn’t marry you if you were the only man in the Transvaal. All she knows is that the man she gazes at over her empty coffee cup has grown remarkably handsome. You can see from this that the plant must be very potent in its effects. I mean, if you consider what some of the men in the Marico look like. (Oom Schalk turns towards Gideon as he enters right. Gideon reaches into the pocket of his tunic and brings out a juba-berry, which he shows to Oom Schalk.)
Oom Schalk:	(Nodding at it before looking Gideon in the eye again) Lettie Cordier?
Gideon:	How did you guess it was Lettie, Oom Schalk?
Oom Schalk:	Well, I noticed that you have been calling at Krisjan Cordier’s house quite often recently. Has Krisjan been relating to you the story of his life?
Gideon:	Yes. Lettie’s father has got up to what he was like at the age of seven. It has taken him a month so far.
Oom Schalk:	He must be glad to get you to listen. The only other man who listened for any length of time was an insurance agent. But he left after a fortnight. By that time Krisjan had reached to only a little beyond his fifth birthday.
Gideon:	But Lettie is wonderful, Oom Schalk. I have never spoken more than a dozen words to her. And of course it is ridiculous to expect her even to look at a policeman. But to sit there in the voorkamer with her father talking about all the things he could do before he was six – and Lettie coming in now and again with more coffee – that is love, Oom Schalk.
Oom Schalk:	Yes, it must be.
Gideon:	I have worked it out that at the rate he is going now, Lettie’s father will have come to the end of his life story in two years’ time, and after that I won’t have any excuse for going there. That worries me.
Oom Schalk:	Yes, no doubt that is disconcerting.
Gideon:	I have tried often to tell Lettie how much I think of her, but every time, as soon as I start, I get a foolish feeling. My uniform starts to look shabby. My boots seem to curl up at the toes. And my voice gets shaky and all I can say to her is that I will come round again soon as I have simply got to hear the rest of her father’s life-story.
Oom Schalk:	Then what is your idea with the juba juice?
Gideon:	(Wistfully) The juba juice might make her say something first.
Oom Schalk:	Well, good luck. I hope it works.
Gideon:	Thank you, Oom Schalk. And thanks for the lamp. (He hands Oom Schalk his hunting light) I had better be going now. Good night, Oom Schalk.
Oom Schalk:	Good night, Gideon. (Oom Schalk watches Gideon disappear off-stage and then turns to the audience) He’s a good fellow. And very simple. Still, he is best off as a policeman – if he were a cattle-smuggler he would get arrested every time he tried to cross the border. So he needs my help in this matter. I think I’ll just ride over to Kristan Cordier’s farm in the morning to remind him about a tin of sheep-dip that he still owes me from the last dipping season.

      2. Answer the following questions:

      (a) Name the props on the stage.

      (b) We are told that Oom Schalk Lourens stops to listen to make sure he is alone. What does that tell us about what he is doing?

      (b) From Oom Schalk’s aside to the audience, what do we learn he is doing?

      (c) What he means with what he says about the two policemen is

      (i) that they were hunting or poaching.

      (ii) they should have been drinking peach brandy with a farmer who didn’t poach.

      (iii) they were eager to catch a poacher so as to be promoted.

      (iv) that Oom Schalk is not afraid of being caught by them.

      (d) Why does Oom Schalk run and hide when he sees Gideon van der Merwe?

      (e) What does he assume Gideon wants to do?

      (f) Oom Schalk talks about Gideon’s real reason for looking for the juba berry. What does this tell us about Gideon?

      (i) That he is embarrassed to tell Oom Schalk what he really wants it for.

      (ii) He always tells lies.

      (iii) He really does want it for his studies.

      (iv) All of the above.

      (g) What is Oom Schalk saying about some of the men in the Marico?

      (h) What kind of man is Lettie’s father?

      (i) What is Oom Schalk implying when he sarcastically says ‘Yes, it must be’?

      (j) What gives us the idea that Gideon will never on his own confess his love to Lettie?

      (k) What do you think Oom Schalk is going to do from his last sentence?

      3. Do a role-play of the scene with a partner.

      Herman Charles Bosman lived in the Groot Marico district and wrote several short stories and novels.

      Do some research about his interesting life. Make a list of some of his stories.

      Take a book of his stories out of the library. When you have read one story, tell a partner about it.

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