ing on the gangway. Then the train glided past camps
and piles of stores, till the last little outpost with its wood fire
was past, and on into the lonely bush. It was dark soon, and I lay on
my back among sacks, rifles, kit-bags, etc., looking at the stars, and
wondering how long this new move would keep me from the front. We
stopped many times, and at Hamman's Kraal took aboard some companies
of infantry. At intervals down the line we passed little posts of a
few men, sentries moving up and down, and a figure or two poring over
a pot on a fire. About midnight, after a rather uneasy slumber, I woke
in Pretoria. Raining. With the patient, sheep-like passivity that the
private soldier learns, we dragged ourselves and our kit from place to
place according to successive orders. A friendly corporal carried my
kit-sack, and being very slow on my feet, we finally got lost, and
found ourselves sitting forlornly on our belongings in the middle of
an empty, silent square outside the station (just where we bivouacked
a fortnight ago). However, the corporal made a reconnaissance, while I
smoked philosophical cigarettes. He found the rest in a house near by,
and soon we were sitting on the floor of a room, in a dense crowd,
drinking hot milk, and in our right minds; sick or wounded men of many
regiments talking, sleeping, smoking, sighing, and all waiting
passively. A benevolent little Scotch officer, with a shrewd,
inscrutable face, and smoking endless cigarettes, moved quietly about,
counting us reflectively, as though we were a valuable flock of sheep.
We sat here till about 2.30 A.M., when several waggons drove up, into
which we crowded, among a jumble of kit and things. We drove about
three miles, and were turned out at last on a road-side, where
lanterns and some red-shawled phantoms were glimmering about. We sat
in rows for some time, while officers took our names, and sorted us
into medical and surgical classes. Then a friendly orderly shouldered
my kit and led me into this tent. Here I stripped off everything,
packed all my kit in a bundle, washed, put on a clean suit of pyjamas,
and at about 4 A.M. was lying in this delicious bed, dead-beat, but
blissfully comfortable. Oddly, I couldn't sleep, but lay in a dreamy
trance, smoking cigarettes, with a beatific red-caped vision hovering
about in the half light. Dawn and the morning stir came, with fat soft
slices of fresh bread and butter and tea. I have been reading and
writin