"Then bring those letters those
which lie apart."
[43] "Here is the packet! Tell me where to
lay it."
"Stoop over, nurse, and lay it on
my heart."

"Thanks for your silence, nurse! You
understand me!
And now I'll try to manage for
myself.
But, as you go, I'll trouble you to hand
me
The small blue bottle there upon the
shelf.

"And so farewell! I feel that I am
keeping
The sunlight from you; may your
walk be bright!
[44] When you return I may perchance be
sleeping,
So, ere you go, one hand-clasp
and good night!"

1902-1909
[45]

They recruited William Evans
From the ploughtail and the spade;
Ten years' service in the Devons
Left him smart as they are made.

Thirty or a trifle older,
Rather over six foot high,
Trim of waist and broad of shoulder,
Yellow-haired and blue of eye;

Short of speech and very solid,
Fixed in purpose as a rock,
Slow, deliberate, and stolid,
Of the real West-country stock.

[46] He had never been to college,
Got his teaching in the corps,
You can pick up useful knowledge
'Twixt Saltash and Singapore.

Old Field-Cornet Piet van Celling
Lived just northward of the Vaal,
And he called his white-washed dwelling,
Blesbock Farm, Rhenoster Kraal.

In his politics unbending,
Stern of speech and grim of face,
He pursued the never-ending
Quarrel with the English race.

Grizzled hair and face of copper,
Hard as nails from work and sport,
[47] Just the model of a Dopper
Of the fierce old fighting sort.

With a shaggy bearded quota
On commando at his order,
He went off with Louis Botha
Trekking for the British border.

When Natal was first invaded
He was fighting night and day,
Then he scouted and he raided,
With De Wet and Delaney.

Till he had a brush with Plumer,
Got a bullet in his arm,
And returned in sullen humour
To the shelter of his farm.

[48] Now it happened that the Devons,
Moving up in that direction,
Sent their Colour-Sergeant Evans