Starlight on the Veld, by Herman Charles Bosman

"When people ask me - as they often do - how is it that I can tell the best stories of anybody in the Transvaal (Oom Schalk Lourens said, modestly), then I explain to them that I just learn through observing the way that I just learn through observing the way that the world has with men and women. When I say this they nod their heads wisely, and say that they understand, and I nod my head wisely also, and that seems to satisfy them. But the thing Iboo say to them is a lie, of course.

For it is not the story that counts. What matters is the way you tell it.The important thing is to know just at what moment you must knock out your pipe on your veldskoen, and at what stage of the story you must start talking about the school committee at Drogvlei. Another necessary thing is to know what part of the story to leave out.