in it. We brought about 25 Boers in camp with us,
either suspected or to save them from temptation. To see them, with
their roll of blankets, saying good-bye to their weeping families would
have touched anything but the hardened, homesick heart of a "Gentleman
in Khaki," for he knows full well that the simple peasant in this, as in
other localities, usually combines business with pleasure by sniping you
in the morning and selling you eggs in the afternoon, as our troop
leader puts it.

[Illustration: Hate.]

Sunday, September 9th. A late _reveille_ (6 o'clock). A lovely, lazy day
in camp, during which I have been stewing fruit, smoking, and, alas, my
bad habits still cling to me, perpetrated for my own amusement a little
rough-and-ready rhyme, which I have the temerity to enclose. We had a
short service, at which our O.C. Major Percy Browne, a real good man,
presided. Ridley, who works with Clements, the same as Mahon did with
Ian Hamilton, has with him Roberts' Horse, Kitchener's Horse, some
Australians, the 2nd and 6th M.I., some artillery and two pom-poms. We
advance to-morrow.

ANOTHER VERSION.

Into our camp, from far away,
Somebody's darling came one day--
Somebody's darling, full of grace,
Wearing yet on his youthful face,
Soon to be hid by a stubbly growth,
The fatted look of a life of sloth.
Thus to our camp, from far away,
Somebody's darling came one day.

Parted and oiled were the locks of gold,
Kissing the brow of patrician mould,
And pale as the Himalayan snows;
Spotlessly clean were his khaki clothes.
It was a cert', beyond any doubt,
Somebody's darling had just come out.

Wond'rous changes were quickly wrought.
Somebody's darling marched and fought.
Somebody's darling learned to shoot,
Somebody's darling loved to loot;
Somebody's darling learned to swear,
And neglected to part his hair.

After riding and marching weary leagues,
Somebody's darling was set on fatigues--
Set on fatigues for dreary hours,
Thinking of home, its fruits and flowers.
Somebody's darling's ideals were quashed;
Somebody's darling went unwashed.

Somebody's darling cussed sergeants big,
Somebody's darling killed a young pig:
Then dressed and trimmed it ready to eat,
First of many a butcherly feat;
Somebody's dear caring naught for looks,
Joined the army of amateur cooks.

Somebod