ittle or nothing. But
so it is. Huge vultures, loathsome black and white birds, keep flying
past us from the west. Now and again, some of them pause and circle
slowly over us, as if to ascertain whether we are dead or not. A small
piece of the kopje jerked at them by the most energetic member of our
party, usually assures them of the negative, and with a few flaps of
their wings they go whirring on. Ugh! I forgot to mention for the
edification of any of our lady friends that at night rats emerge from
beneath the various rocks and sportively run over one's recumbent form.
So, for guarding kopjes, no Amazons need apply.

[Illustration: The Mealie + Bad Fatigue (What the Patriot did not
altogether take into his reckoning.)]

Here, as "I laye a thynkynge" (to quote dear old Ingoldsby), it occurs
to me that we of the Imperial Yeomanry are, in many respects, far wiser,
I don't say better, men than we were six months, or even less, ago. To
commence with, we know Mr. Thomas Atkins far better than we did. Now we
know, and can tell our world on the best authority (_our own_) that he
is the best of comrades, many of us having experienced his hospitality
when in sore straits. That he will do anything and go anywhere we are
certain. As regards ourselves, we have learnt to appreciate a piece of
bread and a drink of water at its true worth, a thing probably none or
few of us had done before--"bread and water" being usually regarded as a
refreshment for the worst of gaolbirds only. And, finally, to sum our
acquirements up roughly, we have learnt to shift for ourselves under any
circumstances. We are hewers of wood, drawers of water, cooks (though,
may be, not very good ones, our resources having been limited), beasts
of burden (fatigues), and exponents of many other hitherto unknown
accomplishments. Allusion to fatigues reminds me of that known as "wood
fatigue." It has been a usual jest of those in command to halt and
bivouac us for the night at some place where there is no wood
procurable, and then send us out _to get it_. Another of their little
jokes has been to serve each man with his raw meat for him to cook when
wood has been unobtainable. One really great result of this war already
is the dearth of wood wherever the troops have been. All along the line
of march, and especially where there have been halts, the wooden posts
used in the construction of the various wire fencings have been chopped
down or pulled up bodily and taken