again." He has just followed on with that mournful ballad, entitled
"The Gipsy's Warning:"

"Do not 'eed 'im, gentle strynger."

I cannot help heeding him, but I dare not remonstrate, as he is the cook
of our party, and in the Army, as elsewhere, _Monsieur le Chef_, be he
ever so humble, is a power. So I will desist for the present, and resume
this to-morrow on the top of a kopje.

(_Resumed._)

Every night we do guard on two of the near kopjes, and every other day I
have to go up with a guard, to another kopje, used as an observation
post, and look with a telescope and the nude optic, Sister Anne like,
for "staggerers of humanity." On Sunday, the 1st, we went to church
again. The preparations the young British Yeoman makes for church going
out here vary considerably, like most other things, from those he is
accustomed to make at home. Having shaved himself with the aid of the
only piece of looking-glass possessed by the company, and a razor, which
in days gone by would have been a valuable acquisition to the
Inquisitorial torture chambers, washed in a bucket and brushed his
clothes with an old horse brush, technically known as "a dandy," he
looks like a fairly respectable tramp, and is ready to fall in with his
comrades for the two or three miles tramp to Divine service. I had the
pleasure of entertaining a guest at breakfast before going to kirk. He
rode up to our cook-house fire (one always _says_ cook-house and
guard-room) to get a light for his pipe. The broad-brimmed hat with the
bronze badge of maple leaves and the word "_Canada_," proclaimed whence
he hailed. After a few minutes' conversation, I invited him to partake
of our breakfast, and, after no little persuasion--he at first refused
on the grounds that he would be depriving us of our full share--he
accepted, and came and joined us. He seemed very reluctant to take much
at first, and all through the meal, which consisted of mealie porridge
and sugar, _cafe sans lait_, bread and jam, expressed his appreciation
of our scant hospitality. He had joined the Military Police for three
months, and was on patrol.

"Where did he hail from?"

"The North-West Frontier."

"Had he ever been to England?"

"No; but would like to, I guess."

Here was a man who had never seen England, roughing it and fighting for
her out here, side by side with us, the home-born; and he only one of
many.

"Hang it, have some more jam, old chap?"

He told us all about the lif