cerned. To mend matters
still further and to improve the no longer shining hours, an officer
caught sight of a stray pig upon the veldt and shot it, just as though
it had been a sniping "brother." A short time after a portion of that
porker took its place among the lozenges and condensed beef tea in
that simmering crock. So in an hour or two there followed another cup
of glorious broth, with a dainty morsel of boiled pork for those who
desired it:--

"Oh ye gods, what a glorious feast!"

Soon after, our Cape cart with its load of iron mugs and tinned
provisions reached that same crock side; while waggon loads of
blankets, beef and biscuits, made possible a satisfactory night's
rest, even on the frosty veldt, for all our well-wearied men.

Kroonstad, the but recently proclaimed second capital of the Orange
Free State, is a very inferior edition of Bloemfontein. There is not a
single stately building, public or private, in the whole place--the
Dutch Reformed Church, afterwards taken for hospital purposes, being
the best, as it is meet and right God's House should always be.

[Sidenote: _Lord Roberts as Hospital Visitor._]

It was while I was visiting the sick and suffering laid, of course
without beds, on the bare floor of this extemporised House of Healing
that our ever busy commander-in-chief called on a similar errand of
pitying kindliness. Fortunately for all concerned the master-mind of
the whole campaign is of a devout as well as kindly type. _Lord
Roberts_ not only encouraged to the uttermost all army temperance
work, being himself the founder of the A.T.A., but like Lord Methuen
took a lively interest in the spiritual welfare of the troops. Yet
never was a general more loved by his men, or more implicitly trusted.
They reposed so much the calmer confidence in his generalship because
of their instinctive belief in his goodness, and as an illustration of
that belief the following testimony sent by a certain bombardier
appeared in a recent report of Miss Hanson's Aldershot Soldiers'
Home:--

"Lord Roberts! Well, he's just _a father_. Often goes round
hospital in Bloemfontein, and it's 'Well, my lad, how are you
to-day? Anything I can do for you? Anything you want?' and never
forgets to _see_ the man has what he asks for. Goes to the
hospital train--'Are you comfortable? Are you _sure_ you're
comfortable?' Then it's 'Buck up! Buck up!' to those who need it.
But when