ch a home;
but, God help us! we must do our best.

"Of course you cannot serve against your own countrymen, and I don't
like your having anything to do with the horrible business; but if you
feel that you must join in with our people and act as a volunteer
against what is a cruel tyranny, I know you will act like a man.

"I can write no more, and Heaven knows when we may meet again. I shall
make for Natal, of course, with as much as I can save out of the wreck--
that is, as much as the enemy will let me carry off. Perhaps, though,
that will be nothing; and I must be content with getting away with our
lives, for I hear that the blacks are getting uneasy, as if they smelt
blood; and Heaven knows what may happen if they break out, for the white
man is their natural enemy in their eyes, and, friends now, they may be
our foes to-morrow.

"God bless and protect you, my boy! Aunt Jenny's dear love to you, and
she is going to help me to hold Bob in, for the young dog is mad to come
after you.

"Your father, in the dear old home he is about to quit, perhaps for
ever.

"John Moray.

"_PS_:--Good news, my boy. Joeboy has just come back, in full fighting
fig. He will bring this, and some provision for a day or two. I feel
sure you may trust him. He has been showing me what he would do to any
one who tried to hurt young Boss Val. He is like a big child; but he is
true as steel. Good-bye.

"Heaven be with you, my boy!"

That last line was in Aunt Jenny's handwriting, and there were big
blotches on the paper where the ink had run, and over them came a few
lines in Bob's clumsy hand:

"Val, old chap, the dad says I'm not to come along with Joeboy to join.
I told him it was a shame, for I felt in a passion, and he knocked me
down.

"That's only my larks. He did knock me down, but not with his fist or
the handle of a--I don't know how you spell it; but I mean chambock. He
knocked me over with what he said. He told me it was my duty to stop
and help him and auntie. He might want me to fight for him and her. If
he does, I'll shove in two cartridges--I mean only one bullet; and I
don't care if the old rifle kicks till she breaks my collar-bone. I
mean to let the Boers have it for coming and upsetting us. I never knew
how nice dear old home was before. Old--"

That was the bottom of the paper; but upon turning it over, there at the
very top on the other side, and in the left-hand corner above the word
"Val,"