ams brought
back from his expedition, besides fowls, etc., for the officers, some
bread and, king of luxuries, a big pot of marmalade, which he bought
from a pretty little Boer girl, the temporary mistress of a fine farm.
Her father, she proudly explained, was away fighting us, "as was his
duty." Williams was quite sentimental over this episode. The Canadians
came round to our fire again, and we had another long talk. They said
there were very few Transvaalers in this army. The Free Staters hate
them. The remains we found in the gun-emplacement at Slabbert's Nek
were those of Lieutenant Muller, a German artillerist. The Boers
always had plenty of our harness, stores, ammunition, etc.

_July 30._--After stables Williams and I went foraging in the town and
secured scones, a fowl (for a shilling), another cabbage, and best of
all, some change, a commodity for which one has to scheme and plot. We
managed it by first getting into a store and buying towels, spoons,
note-books, etc., up to ten shillings, and then cajoling and bluffing
a ten-shilling bit out of the unwilling store-keeper. This was changed
by the lady who sold us the fowl, an Englishwoman. On our return there
was harness-cleaning, interrupted by a sudden order to move, but only
to shift camp about a mile. This is always annoying, because at halts
you always collect things such as fuel and meal and pots, which are
impossible to carry with you. Of course this is no matter, if regular
marching and fighting are on hand, but just for shifting camp it is a
nuisance. However, much may be done by determination. I induced the
Collar-maker to take our flour on his waggon; marmalade, meal, etc.,
were hastily decanted into small tins, and stuffed into wallets, and
just before starting Williams furtively tossed the fuel-sack into a
buck-waggon, and hitched up the Kaffir pot somewhere underneath. I
strung a jug on my saddle, which, what with feed-bags (contents by no
means confined to oats), and muzzles, with meat and things in them, is
rather Christmas-tree-like. We marched through the town, and to the
base of a kopje about a mile away, where preparations for a big camp
had been made. It is confirmed that the Boers have surrendered _en
masse_, and they are to be brought here.

After we had unharnessed, I got leave to go back to town and send a
joint telegram home from a dozen of us. The battery has a telegraphic
address at home from which wires are forwarded to our relation