he places we reached,
generally some farm, where the old occupier and his people received us
in surly silence, and invariably declared there was nothing left to eat,
for the Boers had stripped the place. This sullen reception was not
because we were going to plunder them, for the orders were that
everything requisitioned was to be paid for; it was solely from a
feeling of pitiful racial hatred.

We reached a big and prosperous-looking farm one afternoon after a long
hot ride, and I had been chatting with Denham more than once, and
remarking how rapidly he had recovered from his injury, which he
attributed to the healthy open-air life, and had also spoken with the
sergeant, whose injury troubled him very little; while of our men,
thirty who had received slight injuries had refused to go into hospital,
and were now ready to laugh at any allusion to wounds.

We had reached, as I said, a big and prosperous-looking farm on the open
veldt, hot, fagged, hungry, and thirsty; and the first thing we saw was
the disorder left after the encamping of a large body of men. There
were the traces of the fire they had made, the trampling and litter left
by horses, and the marks where wagon after wagon had been placed to form
a laager; while in front of the long, low house a big, old, grey-bearded
Boer stood smoking, with his hands in his pockets.

One of the officers rode forward to tell him that we were going to camp
there for the night, and that he must supply sheep, poultry, grain for
the horses, and fuel for the corps, at the regular market-prices, for
which an order for payment would be given to him.

The officer was received with a furious burst of abuse in Dutch. There
was nothing left on the farm. The Boers had been there and cleared the
place; and if we wanted provisions of any kind we must ride on, for we
should get nothing there.

The officer was getting used to this kind of reception, and he rode back
at once to the Colonel, who nodded and gave an order, riding forward
with the other officers to take possession of one of the rooms. In an
instant the men began to spread about and search, and the farmer dashed
down his pipe in a fury, to come running towards the officers, raging
and swearing in Dutch as to what he would do; while, as soon as he saw
half-a-dozen men approach the corrugated-iron poultry-house and proceed
to wrench off the padlock, the old man rushed back into his house, and
returned followed by his fat