e without was so redolent of
smoke and powder that sanitation had lost in importance. Moreover, one
could always stick one's head out of the burrow to inhale the outer air
if it were considered fresher than what saluted the nostrils within. Of
course these shelters did not offer so much security from danger as
their occupiers fancied (I have already instanced how the recesses of a
coal-hole had not been proof against invasion); but they were splinter
proof. If husbands and fathers _did_ magnify the protection they
afforded, their motives were kind.

In the meantime we were not left entirely unmolested. The Beaconsfield
_Sanatorium_ continued to be the chief object of Boer solicitude.
Smokeless powder was being employed, and the boom of the particular guns
in action was not audible, or, if audible, so faintly as to be mistaken
for the Column's artillery. We had a man placed on the Conning Tower
whose duty it was to blow a warning whistle at sight of the flame of the
enemy's fuse. But the whistle--not always heard--was only too apt to be
connected with a policeman in distress.

The forty-eight hours' ordeal was not repeated, and interest in eating
matters was soon revived. The comparative calm of Saturday incited us to
have recourse to all sorts of tricks to unearth what was eatable. The
Soup Kitchen was a huge success, and had they not been already well
endowed with this world's goods the distinguished waiters in charge of
the department might have waxed rich. Thousands of pints were served
out daily; indeed there was never a supply sufficient to feed the
multitudes that swarmed round the cauldrons containing this delicious
_elixir_ of life. One of the most remarkable sights of the Siege was,
not the gravity of doctors, lawyers, directors, etc., presenting tickets
for soup--_that_ was piquant enough--but the number of young ladies,
votaries of fashion, who emerged from the _melee_ bedraggled and flushed
with their pails of _nectar_, to all appearances not only forgetful of
the _convenances_, but beaming with smiles of triumph. It may have been
because their charms were enhanced, artful wenches! Enhanced, in any
case, their charms were.

The Kitchen was booming, but the generality of people had in their
enthusiasm so far failed to observe that the quality of the soup had
sadly deteriorated. It had been degenerating day by day. Condiments were
no longer available; mealie meal was withheld, and the soup had thus
become t