arked before on the advantage of being on a hill
to watch the picturesque effects of a storm such as we have here. But
there are some disadvantages, especially if you have to sleep in a
patrol tent no higher than a fair-sized dog-kennel, and a tent-pole
happens to give way. Then you wake with wet canvas flapping about you.
The rain pours down in a deluge that makes you shiver at the mere
thought of turning out to put the tent-pole right. Let the rain drift
and the canvas flap with sounds like gunshots. It is better at any rate
than lying as Tommy does on the hillside yonder with only one blanket to
roll himself in, and with that thought, perhaps, you may be able to
cuddle yourself off to sleep again in spite of the storm.

_November 23._--Notwithstanding Sir George White's protest, Boer guns
are still laid to bear on the Town Hall, and shells frequently fall in
the enclosure near it, and have hit the building, sending splinters in
all directions, by one of which a dhoolie-bearer was killed. This seems
to me a scandalous violation of all the rules of civilised warfare,
which certainly entitle us to a field-hospital in addition to one at the
base. If Schalk-Burger had objected on the ground that the Town Hall so
long as it was used for sick and wounded came in the line of fire from
his guns to our batteries or defensive works, he would have been within
his rights, but all the same there would have been no truth in that
contention, and at any rate it rests with him to clear himself from the
charge of having fired on a Red Cross flag without warning. Meanwhile
other guns on Surprise Hill have been searching for the 18th Hussars in
their bivouac where Klip River runs through a deep ravine, and "Long
Tom" of Pepworth's has thrown a shell into Mrs. Davy's house, opposite
Captain Vallentin's, wounding its owner, who is the first woman hit,
though numbers of them, having got over their first panic, go about
their domestic duties all day as if there were no such thing as a
bombardment, and never think of taking shelter in a riverside cave now.
This shot brought upon "Long Tom" the vengeance of oar Naval Battery,
which must have battered him or his gunners severely.

All the afternoon Boer rifles have been dropping bullets into posts
held by the Rifle Brigade and Leicesters. Perhaps the men were showing
signs of being harassed when General Hunter visited them. With a laugh
he stood bolt upright on a rock, saying, "Now let us see w