e or cocoa. The next time I go
on the march, I shall take two or three pounds of cocoa in my box.
Many a time I have longed for a cup, when we have started at three
o'clock in the morning, and have felt that it would be well worth a
guinea a cup. Now I shall have the satisfaction of always starting
with a good warm drink, which is as good for hunger as thirst. I
have often wondered how I could have been fool enough not to bring
a supply with me."

"Yes, it would have been very comforting," Lisle agreed; "we shall
know better, another time."

"I trust that there will never be another time like this for me. I
shall be ready to volunteer for service in any part of the world,
bar Western Africa. They say that the troops at the Cape are going
through a hard time, but I am convinced that it is child's play in
comparison with our work here. Why, they have hours, and indeed
days, sometimes, without rain. Just think of that, my dear fellow!
Just think of it! And when the rain does fall, it soon sinks into
the sandy soil and, if they lie down at night, they only get wet on
one side, and have waterproof sheets to lie on. Just think of that!
And yet, they actually consider that they are going through
hardships!

"They say, too, that the commissariat arrangements are splendid.
They get meat rations every day--every day, mind you--and I hear
they even get jam. It is enough to fill one with envy. I remember I
was always fond of jam, as a boy. I can tell you that, when I get
back to civilization, one of my first cries will be for jam. Fancy
jam spread thickly on new bread!

"And men who have all these luxuries think that they are roughing
it! Certainly human ingratitude is appalling!"

Lisle laughed.

"But you must remember that there are compensations. We get a fight
every two or three days, while they have often to tramp two or
three hundred miles, without catching sight of an enemy at all."

"There is certainly something in that," Hallett said. "I must admit
that that is a great consolation; and it is satisfactory, too, that
when we do fight we are fired at principally with slugs; which we
both know from experience are not pleasant customers, but at any
rate are a great improvement upon rifle bullets, pom poms, and
shells of all sizes.

"Yes, I don't even grudge them the jam, when I think how awful it
must be to be kept, for months, at some miserable little station on
the railway, guarding the roads. We get restless here