g appallingly near--in reality about a mile
off--and provoked, doubtless, by some very innocent cause. Many of these
volleys were often fired during the night, sometimes for ten minutes
together, at other times singly, at intervals; anon the boom of a cannon
would vary the entertainment. Occasionally, when unable to sleep, I
would creep down the pitch-dark corridor to a room overlooking the
sleeping town and the veldt, the latter so still and mysterious in the
moonlight, and, peeping through a large jagged hole in the wall caused
by a shell, I marvelled to think of the proximity of our foes in this
peaceful landscape. At length would come the impatiently-longed-for dawn
about 4 a.m.; then the garrison would appear, as it were, to wake up,
although the greater part had probably spent the night faithfully
watching. Long lines of sentries in their drab khaki would pass the
convent on their homeward journey, walking single file in the deep
trench connecting the town with the outposts, and which formed a
practically safe passage from shell and rifle fire. Very quickly did the
day burst on the scene, and a very short time we had to enjoy those
cool, still morning hours or the more delightful twilight; the sun
seemed impatient to get under way and burn up everything. Of course we
had wet mornings and wet days, but, perhaps fortunately, the rains that
year were fairly moderate, though plentiful enough to have turned the
yellow veldt of the previous autumn into really beautiful long green
grass, on which the half-starved cattle were then thriving and waxing
fat. The view from our tiny bedrooms was very pretty, and the coming and
going of every sort of person in connection with the convalescent
hospital downstairs made the days lively enough, and compensated for the
dreariness of the nights. The splendid air blowing straight from the
free north and from the Kalahari Desert on the west worked wonders in
the way of restoring us to health, and I began to talk of moving back to
my old quarters. I must confess I was never quite comfortable about the
shells, which seemed so constantly to narrowly miss the building,
although the look-out men always maintained they were aiming at some
other object. One morning I was still in bed, when a stampede of many
feet down the passage warned me our sentinels had had a warning. Quickly
opening my door, I could not help laughing at seeing the foremost man
running down the corridor towards our rooms wi