ed.

27. Drink and Drink.

28. Vexation of Spirit.

29. But I found:

1 That after twelve months of the same I felt
It was not the life for me.

2 That when you wanted to go to sleep,
You're scratching and hunting for l--ce.

3 That 'twas very unpleasant to ride all day
When you'd lost the seat of your trousers.

4 That to get nothing else for more than six months,
Would make any fellow say "D----!"

30. What with Mausers by day and crawlers by night. I
had it.

31. Have seen enough.

32. Going home to a Certainty.

33. Same reason here.

34. The Patriotic Fever has run its natural course.

35. Because the Bo-ahs shot me instead,
And the papers (confound them) reported me "dead,"
That sort of game is rather too bad,
So the prodigal now returns to his dad.

36. Got C.B. instead!

37. Bags of biscuits hard as rocks,
Smashed my teeth and gave me sox!

38. To join the Bodyguard for same reason and--_better pay_.

39. To go back to a hum-drum life, which is better than a
Dum-Dum death.

40. Novelty somewhat worn off, and military discipline not
being at all adapted to my temperament.

In a few days all the men marked for home will be leaving, and to those
they will be leaving behind them the yearning to be on the sea once
again, seems stronger than ever,

"Can you hear the crash on her bows, dear lass,
And the drum of the racing screw.
As she ships it green on the old trail, our own trail, the home trail,
As she lifts and 'scends on the long trail--the trail that is always
new?"

HOME.

ENGLAND-FONTEIN
_April 22nd, 1901._

"We're goin' 'ome, we're goin' 'ome,
Our ship is at the shore,
An' you must pack your 'aversack,
_For we won't come back no more_."

So from going up to Elandsfontein, which is by Johannesburg, it came to
the above cheerful sentiment. And this is how it happened. An order came
from somewhere to our doctor, who had of late so hardened his heart, to
"invalid convalescents freely," and, to be brief, within a few days
nearly every man at Maitland was marked for home, wore a smiling face,
and drew warm clothes for the voyage.

The next burning questions were "What boat will it be and w