work of the women
became even more laborious and diversified. The widely-separated
farmhouses then became typical lunch stations for the burghers, and the
women willingly were the proprietresses. Boers journeying from one
commando to another, or scouts and patrols on active duty, stopped at the
farmhouses for food for themselves and their horses, and the women gladly
prepared the finest feasts their larder afforded. No remuneration was ever
accepted, and the realisation that they were giving even indirect
assistance to their country's cause was deemed sufficient payment for any
work performed. Certain farmhouses which were situated near frequently
travelled roads became the well-known rendezvous of the burghers, and
thither all the women in the neighbourhood wended their way to assist in
preparing meals for them. Midway between Smaldeel and Brandfort was one of
that class of farmhouses, and never a meal-time passed that Mrs. Barnard
did not entertain from ten to fifty burghers. Near Thaba N'Chu was the
residence of John Steyl, a member of the Free State Raad, whose wife
frequently had more than one hundred burgher guests at one meal. When the
battle of Sannaspost was being fought a short distance from her house,
Mrs. Steyl was on one of the hills overlooking the battlefield,
interspersing the watching of the progress of the battle with prayers for
the success of the burghers' arms. As soon as she learned that the Boers
had won the field she hastened home and prepared a sumptuous meal for her
husband, her thirteen-year-old son, and all the generals who took part in
the engagement.

When the winter season approached and the burghers called upon the
Government for the heavy clothing which they themselves could not secure,
there was another embarrassing situation, for there was only a small
quantity of ready-made clothing in the country, and it was not an easy
matter to secure it through the blockaded port at Delagoa Bay. There was
an unlimited quantity of cloth in the country, but, as all the tailors
were in the commandos at the front, the difficulty of converting the
material into suits and overcoats seemed to be insurmountable until the
women found a way. Unmindful of the other vast duties they were engaged in
they volunteered to make the clothing, and thenceforth every Boer home was
a tailor's shop. President Kruger's daughters and grand-daughters, the
Misses Eloff, who had been foremost in many of the other charitable w