hose of us who possessed any ready money could purchase
sundry provisions at two stores in De Aar. The volunteers were paid at
the rate of 5s. a day, which seems a very high rate of pay when one
remembers that the British soldier, who ran much greater risk and did
more actual fighting, received less than 1s. Of course there were
volunteers here and there like myself who possessed some means of our
own and so thought it right and proper to return our pay to the Widows'
and Orphans' Fund, but nevertheless I fail to see why we should be paid
at this exorbitant rate. The most glaring instances of over-paid troops
were the Rimington Scouts, who actually received 10s. a day and their
rations. One trembles to think of the bill we shall all have to pay at
the close of the campaign!

The articles most in request at De Aar were things like "Rose's lime
juice cordial," Transvaal tobacco, cigarettes, jam, tinned salmon,
sardines, etc. Now it happened that the entire retail trade of the place
was in the hands of two Jewish merchants. The more fashionable of the
two shops took advantage of our necessities and demanded most exorbitant
prices for its goods. "Lime juice cordial," _e.g._, which could be got
for 1s. 6d. or 1s. 3d. in Capetown, was sold for 2s. 6d. and 3s. at De
Aar, and the other charges were correspondingly high. Nemesis, however,
overtook the shopman, for the camp commandant hearing of his evil deeds
placed a sentry in front of the store and so put it out of bounds. He
held out for a couple of days, while his more reasonable if less
pretentious rival flourished exceedingly, but a daily loss of L200 is
too severe a tax on the pertinacity of a Jew, or indeed of anybody, so
the rival tariffs were arranged on similar lines, and the sentry sloped
rifle and walked off. The mission workers at De Aar--some excellent
people--dwelt in two railway carriages on a siding. There were, I think,
two ladies and a gentleman. They worked exceedingly hard and their
mission tent was generally well filled. It is astonishing what keenness
is evoked by evangelical services with "gospel hymns". We all sang a
hymn like "I _do_ believe, I _will_ believe," with an emphasis which
seemed to imply that the effort was considerable, but that nobody, not
even a Boer commando, could alter our conviction. Many of the
hymns--poor doggerel from a literary point of view--were sung to
pleasing tunes wonderfully well harmonised by the men's voices. Then
there