or the last five
months. Some correspondents live always alone, and some like to join
with several of their fellows in a large mess; but I think that our
arrangement (when one is so fortunate in one's companion as I was) is by
far the best. Of course the newspaper correspondent has to remember that
he is the rival and not the ally of all his fellows; but in the South
African war there were many occasions when two correspondents might work
together to the advantage of both newspapers, and there were few
occasions when a correspondent could obtain any advantage or information
which was not shared by all the rest. At such times, of course, when
they did arise, we used to become very silent as to our immediate
intentions, and the subject which was uppermost in both our minds was
shunned. But so long as my companion was with me I never lacked a home
on the veldt.

The happiest endings and the lightest farewells are indeed serious; they
punctuate life, and set a period upon chapters that may not be revised.
Out of the dust of preparation rose once more the pillar of cloud that
had hovered over the column for hundreds of dusty miles; and soon to an
accompaniment of stamping feet and jingling harness it moved on, leaving
me behind as it had left so many others--not all to go home, but some to
sleep beneath the roadside bushes. General Mahon waited, chatting, until
the last waggon had passed, and then he also, who had been the
pleasantest of companions as well as the most respected of commanding
officers, rode away with that stiffening of the back with which your
true soldier ever turns from private to public affairs. I looked after
the vanishing column, and felt as though every prop of existence had
been knocked from under me. I had been one amongst a thousand, a mere
molecule in a large mass, moved hither and thither without reference to
my desires or efforts; and I resented the restoration of independence.
Strange contradiction! We crave and struggle for individuality; here was
mine restored to me, and I looked at it askance. The tail of the column
disappeared round a bend in the road. Was this indeed the end of the
chapter?

Not quite the end. As I set out on the westward road I met a
half-battalion of the Scots Fusiliers returning to camp from exercise,
marching at ease. Each company was headed by a piper who swung and
swaggered, blowing deep into the lungs of his instrument. As one company
passed, the measured bleat and