Hope Town, and Orange River are situated on the railway between
Kimberley and the junction of the lines which run south to Cape Town and
Port Elizabeth respectively. De Aar, of which we began to hear so much,
is an important station at the apex of the triangle, just over 500 miles
from Cape Town, and here towards the end of the month of October many
troops were congregating. Here, though no hostilities were actually
taking place, there was a good deal of simmering activity; for it must
be remembered that De Aar Junction was our advanced supply base in the
Colony, and owed its strategical importance at this critical period to
the fact that it was the junction of Cape Town and Port Elizabeth
railways. It is situated about sixty miles from the Orange River and
Free State border.

The contrast at this time between camps British and camps Dutch in the
neighbourhood of the border was curious. The Boers were prepared, taking
their ease. The British were in suspense. Disaffection was visible on
all sides, and yet inaction, irritating inaction, was obligatory.
Morning, noon, and night a perennial sand-storm blew; overhead, the sun
grilled and scorched. Meals, edibles, and liquids were diluted with 10
per cent. of grit, and when perchance Tommy strove to strain his
hardly-earned beer--to make a filter of a butter-cloth--phut! would come
a gust of wind and bring the experiment to a melancholy conclusion. Poor
Thomas's temper was much tried! He was, of necessity, an exceedingly
temperate fellow in those days, but when he got a pot of beer he
preferred it to be beer, and not porridge. He did not relish in his
mouth the same thing that the wind was distributing impartially into
ears and eyes. He said he could take in--at the pores--enough of that to
suit his liking. But he was no grumbler, as a rule. He worked hard and
incessantly, Colonel Barter determining to keep his men of the Yorkshire
Light Infantry quite up to the mark. It was necessary to take every
precaution against surprise, and for commanding officers to remain
eternally on the _qui vive_. It needed considerable tact to order
sufficient work, and only sufficient. It was dangerous to over-fatigue
troops who might be required to leap to arms at any moment; it was also
risky to allow active men in a hot sun to give way to inertia. There was
the never-ceasing routine of guards and picquets, the practice of route
marching and field manoeuvres, and the daily round of minor camp