m all down on the spot. Next day I heard the same
dreadful cough, and told F---- to give him some more lozenges. But
Charlie would have none of them, alleging he "eats plenty to-morrow's
yesterday, and dey no good at all;" and he evidently despises me and
my remedies.

If only there were no hot winds! But the constant changes are so
trying and so sudden. Sometimes we have a hot, scorching gale all day,
drying and parching one's very skin up, and shriveling one's lovely
roses like the blast from a furnace: then in the afternoon a dark
cloud sails suddenly up from behind the hills to the west. It is over
the house before one knows it is coming: a loud clap of thunder shakes
the very ground beneath one's feet, others follow rapidly, and a
thunderstorm bewilders one for some ten minutes or so. A few drops of
cold rain fall to the sound of the distant thunder, now rolling away
eastward, which yet "struggles and howls at fits." It is not always
distant, but we have not yet seen a real thunderstorm; only a few of
these short, sudden electrical disturbances, which come and go
more like explosions than anything else. A few days ago there was a
duststorm which had a very curious effect as we looked down upon it
from this hill. All along the roads one could watch the dust being
caught up, as it were, and whirled along in dense clouds, whilst the
poor little town itself was absolutely blotted out by the blinding
masses of fine powder. For half an hour or so we could afford to
watch and smile at our neighbors' plight, but soon we had to flee
for shelter ourselves within the house, for a furious hot gale drove
heavily up behind the dust and nearly blew us away altogether. Still,
there was no thunderstorm, though we quite wished for one to cool
the air and refresh the parched and burnt-up grass and flowers. Such
afternoons are generally pretty sure to be succeeded by a cold night,
and perhaps a cold, damp morning; and one can already understand
that these alternations during the summer months are apt to produce
dysentery among young children. I hear just now of a good many such
cases among babies.

I have been so exceedingly busy this month packing, arranging and
settling that there has been but little time for going about and
seeing the rather pretty environs of Maritzburg; besides which, the
weather is dead against excursions, changing as it does to rain or
threatening thunderstorms nearly every afternoon. One evening we
ventured