shells began to fall in his beautiful garden among rose trees,
hollyhocks, dahlias, verbenas, and other familiar English flowers, which
he cultivated with much care. Neighbours might be content to surround
their houses with fences of almond-scented oleander, and let the hundred
varieties of South African shrubs bloom in wild profusion under the
shadowing eucalyptus tree, but his gardens were laid out with
well-ordered primness, and in them he delighted to see growing the
fragrant flowers that reminded him and his visitors of home life in
England. All this is in danger of becoming a shell-fretted wilderness
now. "Long Tom" once having turned his attention in this direction
continued to pound away until two shots struck the house itself, and,
bursting inside, shattered the dainty contents of several rooms to
atoms.

Meanwhile, in a picturesque, vine-trellised cottage, not fifty yards
off, ladies went about their domestic duties as usual, apparently
oblivious of all danger. One I saw quietly knitting in the cool, shaded
stoep, and her busy needles only stopped for one moment, when a shell
burst in the roadway beyond, then went on again as nimbly as ever. After
the first shock, some people, who seem least fitted to bear a continuous
strain on their nerves, become so accustomed to the hurtling of huge
projectiles through the air that they show no sign of fear when danger
is close to them. Women are often braver than men in these
circumstances. There is one whose courageous example alone keeps native
servants and coolie waiters at their posts, but she, when little more
than a child, saw some of the horrors of the Zulu War, and she speaks
with pride of her father as one of the few farmers who, refusing to quit
their homes, kept wives and families about them, and fought like heroes
in defence of all they held dear.