a perpendicular sun above me,
mechanically watching the distant hills, but seeing with strong mental
eyes a church porch with roses and creeper over it and noting the
Sabbath silence which presently would be broken softly by the voices of
the worshippers within:

"Come unto Me, ye weary,
And I will give you rest."

I think to stand outside a church and hear the worshippers within is to
get one of the most pleasant impressions possible; somehow it always
strikes me that one imagines the people within to be so much holier,
indeed more spiritual, than they really are. But all this looks either
like preaching or scoffing, and it is neither. It is really the result
of a desire to push myself into the home life you good people are still
leading, somehow or other. An excusable offence after all, my Masters!
Having re-cursed the tail of the convoy, it at last moved forward, and
we, having allowed it so much grace, did the same. At the outskirts of
the village, which the column had moved through, the last waggon--an
overloaded one--collapsed, and once again we manned the heights. I was
sent out with a couple of men to a post a little in advance of the rest
of our troop, and, after an hour, about a mile off saw four Boers
nonchalantly riding toward the other side of the dorp. These were
followed by two more. I sent in and reported this, and shortly after we
moved off, unsniped. Undoubtedly these beggars had been waiting for the
column to pass, so that they could return and have a Sunday dinner and a
quiet evening, having had rather a rough week, and it was only owing to
the above-mentioned waggon breaking down that we had a glimpse into the
ways of our enemy. Our camp was not far off, and we go there at about
six; some of the column were in by eleven in the morning. The amount of
burning done _en route_ was almost appalling. The next day we marched
into Krugersdorp once again, passing several marshy spots where arum
lilies were blooming in rich profusion. We reached here at noon; the
Dorsets and Devons who formed the rearguard had a bit of scrapping, and,
thanks to a straggling convoy, did not get into camp till close on
midnight, and so, of course, got a rare soaking from the usual rain.
Here I have received a few belated mails, and live in hopes of getting
the latest. I have also read in some of the papers of the welcome home
of the C.I.V.'s.

"You've welcomed back the C.I.V.'s,
Back from their toil to home and ea