sort, and the band made a nocturnal round from house to
house, discoursing from its limited repertory much bad music, which grew
worse in proportion to the cumulative hospitality of those serenaded.
Then vast numbers of natives swarmed in from the locations, drawn by a
big tab of the worst kind of grog, broached by Jones of the Barkly
Hotel, and on tap for all comers; and by midday the township was overran
by such racing, whooping blackfellows as were not too drank for that
form of seasonable exuberance; yet in view of the novel reflection that
Christmas occurred but once in a year, these and other little
irregularities were winked at.

Then, with the closing days of the year, the thunderclap burst, the
pent-up electricity so long in the air blazed forth. The tribes within
the border had risen, and that with a spontaneity and fixity of purpose
which should have been gratifying to all overs of the thorough-going,
and the hot, Southern midsummer nights of the closing year echoed the
fierce thunder of the war-song, where crowds of excited savages danced
fiend-like in the lurid glow of flaming homesteads.

The news of the outbreak, grim as it might be, was received by
Doppersdorp as by no means an unmixed evil; for did it not mean more
excitement, and was not excitement a most blessed boon to that
slow-going community? First, there was the delight of discussing the
news, and, on the part of each citizen, the inestimable joy of carrying
on the whole campaign exactly as it should be carried on--from Jones'
bar-room. Then, there was the exhilaration of many Volunteer parades,
and the sounding of wholly strange and uncalled-for alarms at all hours
of the day and night, not to mention midnight swoops into the town
location in quest of potential spies, and the rude disturbance of the
slumbers of its population, resulting in two or even three decrepit and
otherwise inoffensive natives, unable in the scurry and alarm to produce
their passes, being marched off to gaol, triumphantly and securely
escorted by some three-score fixed bayonets. All these, and many more
doughty deeds of valour, were achieved by the armed manhood of
Doppersdorp daring those trying times.

Perhaps, however, the acme of jubilation was attained when the Burgher
law was put in force in the district. Then a monster meeting was
convened, and to it swarmed a vast number of armed Boers of all sorts
and sizes, and the atmosphere of the Court-house was terrif