the river, in which, crocodiles or no crocodiles, we
enjoyed a delicious bathe, there was a similar steel rope suspended as
the only possible though perilous way of getting across when the river
is in flood. In this as in all other respects, however, a gracious
Providence seemed to watch over us for good, seeing that not once
during all the eleven months we had been in the country had we found a
single river so full as to be unfordable. Moreover, though now
tramping through a notorious fever country, the long overdue rain and
fever alike lingered in their pursuit of us and overtook us not, so
that up to that time not a solitary case of enteric occurred in all
our camp. The incessant use of one's heels seems to be the best
preservative of health, for it is only among sedentary troops that
sickness of any sort really runs riot.

The rations, however, have often been of the short measure type in
consequence of the prodigious difficulty of transport over roads that
are merely unfrequented tracks, and the utter wearisomeness of such
day after day tramps on almost empty stomachs has been so pronounced
that the men often laughingly avowed they would prefer fourth class by
train to even first class on foot. When they occasionally marched and
climbed in almost gloomy silence I sometimes advised them to try the
effect on their pedestrian powers of a lively song, and playfully
suggested this new version of an old-time melody--

Cheer, boys, cheer,
No more of idle sorrow;
Cheer, boys, cheer,
_There'll be another march to-morrow_.

But though they readily recognised the appropriateness of the
sentiment, they frankly confessed it was impossible to sing on
three-quarters of a pound of uncooked flour in place of a full day's
rations, which indeed it was. Next day these much-tried men had to
wade three times through the river, mostly with their boots and
putties on, so that though short of bread and biscuit they were well
supplied with "dampers," unfortunately of a sort that soaked but never
satisfied.

[Sidenote: _Much fat in the fire._]

After passing "Joe's Luck," where for us "there was no luck about the
house, there was no luck at all," the Guards reached Avoca, another
station on the Barberton branch; and here we found not only a fine
railway bridge destroyed with dynamite, but also the railway sheds,
recently crammed full with government stores, mostly provisions, now
ruthlessly giv