fountainhead

2 b. delilah

i am delilah cloete. i am twenty six years old. i have a grade twelve certificate. i graduated from beaufort west high school. i know how to work with children. i have experience in this field because i have four sisters and five brothers. i am the oldest. i have had to help bring them up and look after them. i have cooked and washed and mended for them and helped them do homework. i have had to look after them through all their childrens' illnesses, like mumps and chicken pox and whooping cough. there is nothing that i don't know about bringing up babies, boys or girls. some of my other brothers and sisters are now old enough to look after the younger ones. i can move out of the house. my mother died two years ago with the birth of my youngest brother, but hailey, who is just younger than myself and my brother just younger than her, dirkie, can help look after the rest. (often babies die at birth, but not in this family. a healthy bunch we are!) my father is not too well. probably tired himself out making this family and working in harsh conditions his entire life. (some men are hard and unyielding when they are young and then when they get older and softer one has to forgive them their past and one feels sorry for them because they become like children again.) oh, and i can maneuver a horse and cart very well; my father was the district hawker for many years and i had to take over that job from him when he couldn't take the hardship of travelling any longer. the sun and cold and wind and rain and frost is a bit much for an old man. so i know how to sell things to people who think they don't need them. i can work with money and do math. i will be an asset. and i know the district. i know the farm owners and towns people from my riding around all over in this region and the inhabitants around here like me. maybe because i treat everyone as an equal; somehow the men don't mind that, probably because i can beat them at cards and ride a horse better than most of them. i actually like the travelling quite a bit. i love sleeping under the stars in the bush. i love the fires i make each evening in the veld where i camp for the night and the freshly brewed coffee i make on those still hot embers the next morning. people are kind and they all seem to look out for me. they often say to me i can spend the night in their yards with my horse and cart. but i never do. i don't look for trouble, i've seen how the men and boys of the house look at me. the fathers will often speak to me about anything under the sun and say, my child this and my child that, but how they look at me is not at all how one looks at a child. but i get on with them. men like to talk to me. somehow they seem to find it pleasant. i'm glad it is like that and i think i understand them. so, can i have this job, please?