When I was little, my father used to run a race called The Jock in Barberton. It was always a lovely holiday for us kids: lots of uninterrupted playtime and exploration in the bush. And we couldn't possibly leave Barberton until we'd gone to see Jock's statue.
This year my middle child read Percy Fitzpatrick's book Jock of the Bushveld for school. (I subbed it in to replace the American history I'd taken out.) She didn't like the end. I should perhaps mention this post contains spoilers. But the book was written in 1907—surely it's safe enough now to give away the ending?
If you are unfamiliar with the story, Percy Fitzpatrick was a transport rider in the Bushveld region of what was then the Transvaal. He adopted the run of a litter of Staffordshire terrier puppies—Jock, who turned out to be a brave and loyal dog. Fitzpatrick wrote the book after telling stories to his children of his travels with Jock. Jock's adventures included getting lost in the bush, hunting a leopard, and facing a crocodile. Rudyard Kipling, a family friend, persuaded Fitzpatrick to put the stories in a book form.
Confession time: I had never actually read Jock of the Bushveld until a few years ago when I read it with my eldest. I had read children's versions before, but never the unabridged story. The stories that we read and love as children never leave us; perhaps that is why I love Jock as an adult, and why I've included him in our school curriculum.
I've also just finished reading the illustrated children's version to my youngest. It is his favourite book of the year so far—particularly the chapter about the old crocodile. He didn't like the ending of the book either. “Jock didn't really die, did he?” he asked when we finished reading. When I said yes, that's what had happened, he hunched down on the couch and said he wasn't going to narrate that chapter because he was too sad.
I didn't press him. I was a bit teary myself and also needed a moment. This is the beauty of reading living books (and the challenge of reading them aloud!). Charlotte Mason says, in Formation of Character, “Why in the world should we not give children, while they are at school, the sort of books they can live upon; books alive with thought and feeling, and delight in knowledge, instead of the miserable cram-books on which they are starved?”
Are there problems with Jock? Yes; it was written in a time when racial slurs and negative attitudes toward non-whites were commonplace and completely accepted. But we read the unabridged book anyway, because we cannot erase the past, only learn from it. We talk about what the words mean and why they are not acceptable to use; we come back to the Gospel and talk about how God sees and loves people.
In his preface to the book, Fitzpatrick writes, "Little by little the book has grown until it has come perilously near the condition in which it might be thought to have Pretensions. It has none! It is what it was: a simple record, compiled for the interest and satisfaction of some Little People, and a small tribute of remembrance and affection offered at the shrine of the old life and those who made—tendered in the hope that some one better equipped with opportunities and leisure may be inspired to do justice to it and to them for the sake of our native land."
I remember watching the film as a child, too, but I had forgotten a lot of what happened . (Except the baboon—I remember the scene with the baboon.) We plan to watch the film as a family now that everyone is familiar with the story. I suppose I had better make sure we have a box of tissues handy for the end.
What is it about Jock's story that is so enduring, that adults and children alike are enthralled by his adventures? Is it that the runt of the litter, who barely escapes being drowned at birth, becomes a beautiful and brave hunting dog? Is it that he has hair-raising adventures involving leopards and buck and crocodiles? Or is it his odd friendship with old Jim Makokel? Or the tragedy of his eventual deafness and death? Maybe it's Fitzpatrick's love for him that shines through his writing. Doesn't everyone want a companion as brave and loyal as Jock was?
In a chapter titled "The Background," Fitzpatrick says, "Oh, it's little they know of life who cannot guess the secret springs of loneliness and love that prompt the keeping of a trifling pet; who do not know what moves a man who daily takes his chances of life and death—man whose 'breath is in his nostrils'—to lay his cheek against the muzzle of his comrade dog, and in the trackless miles of wilderness feel he has a friend. Something to hold to; something to protect."
One of our favourite hiking and picnic spots is the Wilds, a nature reserve in the middle of Joburg. On one of the information boards posted there is the tidbit that Percy Fitzpatrick used to visit there. On one of the paths is a lookout point named Jock's View which has a beautiful mosaic of Jock. Every time we go to the Wilds, we stop at Jock's View.
One day, when we get to the Great South African Roadtrip we like to dream about, we'll stop in Barberton and greet Jock's statue. Until then, we'll keep reading.
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