ere not
forgotten in the midst of our wild festivities. For them the morning
train was laden with fruit, flowers, and such delicacies as the
resources of this beleaguered town can still furnish. There are many
unselfish people here who do not want to make money by selling things at
market prices, or to keep for their own use the dainties that might be
nectar to the lips of suffering soldiers. And there are officers also
who have given of their abundance so freely that they will have to be
dependent on similar generosity if the chances of war should number them
among the sick or wounded. I must guard myself against being
misunderstood. The hospital patients at Intombi Camp are not reduced to
meagre fare yet, nor likely to be, but medical comforts are not all that
a sick man craves for, and the simplest gifts sent from Ladysmith's
store that day must have been like a ray of sunshine brightening the lot
of some poor fellow with the assurance that, though far from home, he
was still among friends who cared for him. Nor were the weakly and the
children who still remain in this town forgotten. Colonel Dartnell, a
soldier of wide experience, who commands the Field Force of Natal
Police, and is beloved by every man serving under him; Major Karri
Davis, of the Imperial Light Horse; Colonel Frank Rhodes, Lord Ava, and
a few others got together the materials for a great Christmas tree, to
which all the little ones between babyhood and their teens were invited.
The Light Horse Major's long imprisonment with his brother officer
Sampson in Pretoria, far from embittering him against humanity in
general, has only made him more sympathetic with the trials and
sufferings of others; just as heavy fines and a death sentence seemed to
bring out the most lovable characteristics of Colonel Rhodes. It was
Karri Davis who bought up all the unbroken toys that were to be found in
Ladysmith shops; and the ready hands of ladies, who are always
interested in such work, decorated the Christmas trees or adorned the
hall in which this gathering was to be held with gay devices and hopeful
mottoes. There were four trees. Round their bases respectively ran the
words, "Great Britain," "Australia," "Canada," and "South Africa," and
above them all the folds of the Union Jack were festooned. Contributors
sent bon-bons and crackers in such profusion that each tree bore a
bewildering variety of fruit. To avoid confusion in distributing prizes,
these were numbere