the door. The colonel, who was standing near, seemed rather
proud of this exhibition, but when the mare was almost beside herself
with terror, and while she was yet swinging in mid-air, he spoke
reassuring words--"Woa, Bunny! Steady, old girl!" The beast could not
see him, but she heard the voice in the air, and became suddenly quiet.
May she live to need the same assurance on her homeward journey, was
one's involuntary thought. The sight of these fine horses was very
pitiful, in the light of their possible destiny. One looked at the
glossy coats and saw them torn and bloody. One watched the nervous wild
eye and the twitching ears, and heard the whistling bullets and the
shells bursting round them, who know no reason for the commotion,
holding themselves bravely in check until the steadying voice behind
them ceases and the load suddenly lightens, or until a stray bullet ends
both fears and endeavours.

After many delays the last horse was on board. And now there remained
only the inspection by the naval embarkation officers, an interval for
the crowd of half an hour, which the band on the quay did its best to
pass agreeably. There were many false alarms of departure. Every
patriotic song and tune had been played and cheered, but after "Auld
Lang Syne" had been hammered out for the third time the ship began to
move. As she left the quay the younger men at one end of the ship made a
great commotion. One held up a flag which he proposed to plant on
"Kroojer's Hill." (Some authorities might read Majuba.) These men,
recruits for the most part, made in their ignorance of war a joyful
noise, but the Reservists and old hands looked grave and sad, and hardly
joined in the singing or cheering. They were thinking.

III

HOW THE WOUNDED CAME HOME

Going down Southampton Water on January 5th to meet the _Aurania_ with
her company of sick and wounded, one enjoyed a wonderful study of sober
tints in land and sea under a winter sky. The little steamer clove light
green waters that were hardly rippled by the breeze. This green sea she
divided in two long curling lines that seemed to reach the shore on
either hand, merging their light colour with a dark green of fields
waiting for spring. The fields in their turn faded into the bluish black
of leafless trees, and the trees bounded a sky of soft banks shading
from blue to grey. The waters seemed almost deserted, except for a ship
that now and then might meet us, stealing up o