ristian
work then attemptable takes the form of a brief greeting in the name
of Christ to the men who tramp beside us, though they are often too
tired even to talk, and we are compelled to trudge on in stolid
silence.

The drift we had to cross that Sunday at the Vet was by far the worst
we had yet reached in South Africa, and till all the waggons were
safely over, the whole column was compelled to linger hard by. I
therefore took advantage of that long pause to hurry on to Smaldeel
Junction, where the headquarter staff was staying for the day. Here I
was privileged to introduce Mr Edwards to the Field-Marshal, and was
so fortunate as to secure his immediate appointment as Wesleyan
chaplain to the whole of General Tucker's Division, with special
attachment to the South Wales Borderers. This important and
appropriate task successfully accomplished, I retired to rest under
the broken fans of a shattered windmill.

Mr Edwards' association with the Guards' Brigade was thus of very
short duration; but some interesting glimpses of his after work are
given, from his own pen, in "From Aldershot to Pretoria." I must,
therefore, only add that he was early struck by a small fragment of a
shell, and was at the same time fever-stricken, so that for ten weeks
he remained on the sick list. Still more unluckily he had only just
resumed work, when there developed a further attack of dysentery,
fever and jaundice, which ended in his being invalided home. Thus,
like many another chaplain, he found his South African career became
one of suffering rather than of service.

CHAPTER V

TO THE VALSCH RIVER AND THE VAAL

After resting for two days at Smaldeel, the Guards set out for
Kroonstad on the Valsch or False River, so called because in some
parts it so frequently changes its channel that after a heavy freshet
one can seldom be quite sure where to find it. This march of
sixty-five miles was covered in three days and a half; Smaldeel seeing
the last of us on Wednesday and Kroonstad seeing the first of us about
noon on Saturday. In the course of this notable march we saw, or
rather heard, two artillery duels; the Boers half-heartedly opposing
our passage, first at the Vet River just before we reached Smaldeel,
and then at the Sand River, long since made famous by the Convention
bearing that name.

[Sidenote: _The Sand River Convention._]

Though Great Britain is supposed to suffer from insatiable land hunger
it is a notabl