remainder being left to wander tied together in threes and
fours, reminding one for all the world of Bank Holiday festivallers
arm-in-arm on the so-called joyous razzle dazzle.

Out here we wandering humble builders of the Empire have no idea how the
war is progressing, if progressing it is. Our noses are flat against the
picture, so to speak, and, consequently, we practically see and know
nothing; it is you good folks at home who have the panoramic view. Our
cheerful pessimist expressed himself to this effect a few days ago.
About forty or fifty years hence, travellers in this part of the world
will come across bands of white-haired and silver-bearded men in strange
garbs of ox and mule skin patches, and armed with obsolete weapons,
wandering about in pursuit of phantasmal beings to be known in future
legends as land Flying Dutchmen. Anyhow, give Private Thomas Atkins a
good camp fire at night when the Army halts, round which he can
comfortably sit and grumble about his rations, while he partakes of a
well-cooked looted porker or fowl, and afterwards fills his pipe with
the tobacco of the country, which he lights with an ember plucked from
the burning, and talks of home, and the prospects, optimistic or
pessimistic, of getting there some day, and at least, he is content. Oh,
England, what have we not given up for thee this year, Cowes, Henley,
the Derby, Ascot, Goodwood, the Royal Academy, the Paris Exhibition, the
latest books and plays, all these and more--much more. And if we hadn't,
what would we have done? Kicked ourselves, of course.

"Then here's to the Sons of the Widow,
Whenever, however they roam;
And all they desire, and if they require,
A speedy return to the home.
Poor beggars, they'll never see home!"

HEAVY WORK FOR THE RECORDING ANGEL.

VAALBANK,
_Sunday, August 12th, 1900._

I believe this place is called Vaalbank, though really I am by no means
certain. Anyhow, it looks respectable to have some sort of address, so I
will let it stand.

Yesterday, at Commando Nek, we were rejoined by the rest of the
Composite Squadron, and remounts were brought up from Pretoria (about
300); on account of the latter I am glad that I did not commence this
letter the same evening, for we Yeomanry had to lead them. The brutes
were Hungarians and Argentines. Niggers had brought them from Pretoria,
and then we had to tak