'And are those heavy wagons just going down the street carrying the
big guns to the outskirts?'

'Yes. Good-night, dear.' He was gone.


FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: The sufferings of this hapless crowd were acute.
Provisions were hard to obtain at the way stations. The water supply
gave out. A little child died of exposure, and the heart-broken mother
held the lifeless body twenty-four hours on her lap. There was no room
to lay it to one side. Another woman gave birth to an infant.]

[Footnote 2: The Cornish miners were politely presented at Kimberley
and other places en route with bunches of white feathers by the
howling mob. One Cornishman afterwards related that he was pulled out
at every station and made to fight. After the fourth mauling he turned
round and went back to Johannesburg, preferring to take his chances
with the Boers.]




III


January 1, 1896.--With the dawn of day I am out of bed and at the
window waiting for the cry of the newsboy.