ne, and "sold" well (in fact,
everybody). Nothing else occurred to make Friday noteworthy.

Saturday completed the round dozen weeks of siege life. How many more
were to follow? Alas! our seers were discredited. They were silent; but
hollow though time had branded their vaticinations the silence of the
seers was not exactly golden. The prevailing pessimism was
heart-breaking. At a critical stage, when a cheerful optimism was almost
essential to the preservation of one's mental balance, we were
tactlessly stuffed with the "lone lorn" lamentations of a Mrs. Gummidge.
But Roberts was coming, and he was a "great" soldier--far greater than
Wellington, or even Napoleon (a mere Corsican!) We hungered for news of
his plans. Roberts, we took it, was not the man to sanction the alleged
intentions of his subordinates--the callous mediocrities who would let
Kimberley work out its own salvation. It was reported at this time--for
the better security of our peace of mind--that a grand march was to be
made on Bloemfontein, while Kimberley was to live on air and fight away.

In the afternoon a balloon appeared in the air. It attracted much
attention, and set everybody speculating on what its business in the air
precisely was. Our nautical experts (who had been at sea for three weeks
anyhow) opined that it was "steering" for the Diamond Fields. It must
have collided with a "Castle," for it never came into port.

Balloons, indeed, were seen very often, and a great deal of time was
devoted to the study of their movements. In the silence of the night a
practical joker would rush out with a field-glass in his hand and shout
"balloon!" at the top of his voice. The desired effect--of bringing the
whole street out of bed to see the balloon--was easily produced. The
star-gazers would thus spend an hour or so minutely examining all the
stars in the firmament in their endeavours to select the one that most
resembled a balloon. This was not easily done--the stars being much
alike to the stupid naked eye--but they would near the point of
agreement on the question; and then the confounded night-patrol would
come along with his gun, and the observers would have to rush for the
cover of their blankets. When it was thought that the patrol had passed
two thousand yards there would be a general sneak back to begin over
again the search for the needle in the great haggard of the heavens.
Everybody had his or her own particular planet to minimise. The
bri