Dream Life and Real Life

Olive Schreiner (1855-1920) was a South African author, suffragist and political activist. She is best known for her novel The Story of an African Farm, but some of her most haunting and memorable works are her short stories. “Dream Life and Real Life” is a haunting short story about a little orphan girl in servitude to a cruel Boer family. One night, following a beating, she runs away and hides in a cave. But there she overhears three men plotting to rob and burn down the Boer’s farm and kill the family. What should she do? Warn them, or let them burn to death?