clothes
staring dismally out into the rain. At night we tried to warm our naked
bodies by covering ourselves with the dirty wool that happened to be
lying there. All the outhouses in the neighbourhood were crowded with
armed burghers in tatters. On the eighth day, when the welcome sun made
its appearance once more, our clothes were still dripping.

Lately we had had fruit as a substitute for sugar; but the fruit season
was over now, and we had to go back to meat and mealie-porridge, or
mealie-porridge and meat.

In the Moot our horses died in such numbers--particularly the 'unsalted'
mares--that many of our men had to walk. On March 10 my faithful brown
pony Steenbok died of horse-sickness. For over a year he had carried me
through thick and thin, and I could not bear to see his suffering. A few
weeks later we got another lot of horses; I will not mention how, as
the information might fall into the hands of the enemy. The people who
still lived on their farms often told us that the few remaining fowls
instinctively recognised khaki as an enemy, and made for the hedges and
shrubs whenever they caught sight of him. So here, also, Nature looked
after the survival of the species. The cows taken by the enemy also made
their way back to their calves that khaki stupidly left behind, and so
the little children could again have milk. Even the bees were not left
undisturbed; but the bee is an enemy of any nasty-smelling thing, and
therefore the dirty, perspiring khakies got many a sting, and the honey
usually remained in the hives.

The enemy probably thought that we were helpless in our poverty. But a
Boer is not easily made helpless. We patched our own shoes and carried
the lasts about with us. Horseshoes and nails we made from the tires of
wheels and telegraph-wires. Instead of matches we used two stones. When
the enemy have burned and destroyed all our corn-mills, we will still
have coffee-mills, and when those are gone we will do as the Kaffirs do,
and grind our corn between two stones--and crushed and roasted maize is
very good to eat.

The old Voortrekkers wore trousers made of untanned hide. We can do the
same if khaki does not supply us with sufficient clothes. Our wives and
children and our exiled men we cannot get out of khaki's hands, and that
is the greatest difficulty in our way.

One of the greatest advantages we have over the enemy is that we are
among friends, and can move about in small troops without havin