ia to surrender. Our men,
therefore, who were practically free, awaiting orders, when thus
unceremoniously shelled, at once stampeded; and late on Thursday night
about nine hundred of them, footsore and famished, arrived at Mr
Goodwin's house seeking shelter. He was apparently the only friend
they knew in Pretoria, and to have a friend yet not to use him is, of
course, absurd! So to his door they came in crowds, dragging with
them the Boer Maxim gun, by which they had so long been overawed.
While tea and coffee for all this host were being hurriedly prepared
by their slightly embarrassed host, I sought permission from a staff
officer to house the men for the night in our Wesleyan schoolrooms,
and in the huge Caledonian Hall adjoining, which was at once
commandeered for the purpose. I also requested that a supply of
rations might at utmost speed be provided for them. Accordingly, not
long before midnight a waggon arrived bringing by some fortunate
misreading of my information, provisions, not for nine hundred hungry
men, but for the whole three thousand prisoners whom we were supposed
to have welcomed as our guests. It may seem incredible, but men who at
that late hour had fallen fast asleep upon the floor, at the sound of
that waggon's wheels suddenly awoke; and still more wonderful to tell,
when morning came those nine hundred men, of the rations for three
thousand, had left untouched only a few paltry boxes of biscuits. A
hospital patient recently recovered from fever once said to me, "I
haven't an appetite for two, sir; I have an appetite for ten!" And
these released prisoners had evidently for that particular occasion
borrowed the appetite of that particular patient!

[Sidenote: _The Soldiers' Home._]

The Caledonian Hall above referred to is a specially commodious
building, and could not have been more admirably adapted for use as a
Soldiers' Home if expressly erected for that purpose. It was
accordingly commandeered by the military governor to be so used, and
for months it was the most popular establishment in town or camp. At
Johannesburg a Wesleyan and an Anglican Home were opened, both
rendering excellent service; but as this was run on undenominational
lines, it was left without a rival. It is a most powerful sign of the
times that our military chiefs now unhesitatingly interest themselves
in the moral and spiritual welfare of the men under their command.
Some time before this Boer war commenced, on April 28