the
excited Tommy. Then, to his horror, he recognised the general, and,
confused, tried to apologise. "Not at all," said the chief, and helped
him to kill the bird. Then telling him if he liked he could take it to
his colonel and say the general had helped him to kill it, he sauntered
away.

His favourite corps is the I.L.H., and he seems quite pained when they
miss an opportunity of obtaining good loot, which, once or twice they
have done, owing to a stringent order from someone else against it.

Routine and red tape, though probably not so bad as "once upon a time,"
are still rampant, and we Yeomanry get our full share of them, the
Colonials being more exempt. When we are on the march it is always
"dress up there" or back as the case may be, and the following extract
from a comrade's diary can be regarded as absolutely veracious.

"August 6th. On advance party again. Tried to look for Boers and lost my
'dressing.' Severely reprimanded."

It appears to me that our way for locating the enemy is absurdly simple.
We advance in approved extended order, so many horses' lengths, not more
nor less, if any Boers are about, and we get too close to them, they pot
at us. Then we take cover, if not bowled over; and it is generally known
that there are Boers about.

This (Sunday) morning, I am writing a few lines during a halt--we passed
various farms on our way, which is in the direction of Krugersdorp. We
are in hopes of rounding up De Wet (don't laugh!) At one of these farms,
as we passed, a regular old Rip Van Winkle Dopper Boer was seated by his
door scowling at us, and a trooper who had evidently been sent to ask
for arms presently received, and rode away with _a sword_. It was really
most amusing, probably the dear old man had three Mausers under his
floor boards, and perhaps a bathchair was to be found somewhere on the
premises, in which he could be conveyed to the top of a kopje now and
again, to enjoy the pleasure of sniping the _verdommte Rooineks_, or
their convoy as it passed along.

Monday, August 13th. On this day we made a reconnaissance in force, but
had no fighting. In the evening we had to do an outlying picket on a
near kopje, some long range and ineffective sniping going on as we took
up our position at sunset. The waggon having been left behind (no
unusual occurrence), we went tea-less to our night duty.

Tuesday, August 14th. Off, without any coffee, on advance guard. As we
moved out of camp, revolve