be able to say I have not been other than fit all
through. All the others have had horses to ride: they are welcome
to them. I am a bit proud of having had a share in that march
from Klip Drift to Bloemfontein, and am thankful for the strength
that was given me to do it. I am jealous for the honour of the
department, and all I want at the end of the campaign is that the
generals should say, the Church of England chaplains have done
their duty well. One said to me the other day, 'I _should_ like
to be mentioned in despatches.' I replied, 'I have no such wish.
To do that you must go where you have no business to be.' Our
chaplains are brave men; there's not one who would flinch if told
to go into the firing line; but the generals _all_ say that our
place is at the field hospital; moving quietly amongst the sick
and wounded when they are brought in, and burying the dead when
they are carried out. There's not one of our chaplains out here
who has not earned, so far as I can gather, kind words from those
with whom he serves, and I think you will find your selection has
been more than justified.

"We had an excellent meeting in connection with the A.T.A. in the
Bloemfontein Town Hall last night, with Lord Roberts in the
chair. He spoke admirably; and though most of the troops were out
of the city the hall was full."

CHAPTER III

THROUGH WORLDS UNKNOWN AND FROM WORLDS UNKNOWN

[Sidenote: _A pleasure jaunt._]

During this six weeks of tarrying at Bloemfontein I found myself able
to visit a most interesting Methodist family residing some twenty
miles south of the town. For my sole benefit the express to the Cape
was stopped at a certain platelayer's hut, and then a walk of about a
mile across the veldt brought me to the pleasant country house of a
venerable widow lady. Her belongings had of course been freely
commandeered by the Boers on the outbreak of war; nor had the sons,
being burghers, though loyal-hearted Britishers, been able to elude
their liability to bear arms against their own kin. The two youngest,
schoolboys still, though of conscript age, had been sent down south
betimes; and so were well out of harm's way, but the two elder were
not suffered to thus escape. One as a despatch rider, and one as a
commissariat officer, they were compelled to serve a cause that did
violence to their deepest convict