cook's greatest hits was a
song entitled "Underneath the Dear Old Flag". In order to furnish a
touch of realism the singer had secured a small _white_ flag which
floated on the top of our train; but he never seemed to realise the
incongruity of waving this peaceful emblem over his head as he thundered
out his resolve "to conquer or to die".

Just below Graspan Station the Boers had made one of their many attempts
to wreck the line. They had torn up the metals and the sleepers, and a
good many bent and twisted rails lay beside the permanent way. But this
sort of injury to a railway is very speedily set right. In an hour or
two a party of sappers can relay a long stretch of line if no culverts
or bridges are destroyed. Mishaps to the telegraph are still more easily
repaired, and already, side by side with the wreckage of the original
wires, the piebald posts of the field telegraph service ran all along
the lines of communication.

Here and there Kaffir families sat squatting about their primitive huts,
or kept watch over flocks of goats and sheep. Ostriches stalked solemnly
up to the railway and gazed at the train, and sometimes their curiosity
cost them the loss of a few tail feathers if we could get a snatch at
them through the wire railings. On one occasion a soldier attempting to
take this liberty with an ostrich was turned upon by the indignant bird,
and a struggle ensued which might have proved serious to the man; he
was, however, lucky enough to get a grip on the creature's neck and
succeeded by a great effort in killing it. Ordinarily, however, the
ostriches, despite an occasional surrender of tail feathers, lived on
terms of amity with our men, and at Belmont they were to be seen walking
about the camp and concealing their curiosity under a great show of
dignity. During the fight one of these birds took up its quarters with a
battery, and watched the whole battle without taking any food, except
that on one occasion when a man lit his pipe the bird suddenly reached
out for the box of lucifers and swallowed it with great gusto.

It was curious to notice a variety of chalk marks upon some of the ant
hills on the battle-field. The Boers had carefully measured their ground
beforehand, as we did at Omdurman, and knew exactly how to adjust their
sights as we advanced against their position. The battle of Graspan
consisted, as at Belmont, in a frontal attack upon a line of kopjes held
by a much larger force of the enem