his comrade. Our methods were very different, except as regards flour,
coffee, sugar, and other articles of that nature. The British soldier,
for instance, received his meat ready cooked in the form of bully-beef
(_blikkiescost_ we called it), whilst the burgher received his meat raw,
and had to cook it as best he could.

Before I leave this subject I may be forgiven if I describe the method
of distributing meat to the burghers. After it had been cut up, the
Vleeschkorporaal[2] handed out the pieces--a sufficiently responsible
task, as it proved, for, as the portions differed much in quality, it
became of the first importance that the Vleeschkorporaal should be a man
whose impartiality was above suspicion. To avoid any temptations to
favouritism, this useful personage used to turn his back on the
burghers, and as the men came up in turn he would pick up the piece of
meat which lay nearest to hand and, without looking round, give it to
the man who was waiting behind him to receive it.

This arrangement should have been satisfactory to all, but it sometimes
happened that some burgher, whom fortune had not favoured, made no
effort to conceal his discontent, and thus squabbles frequently
occurred. Then the Vleeschkorporaal, fully convinced of his own
uprightness, would let his tongue go, and the burgher who had complained
was a man to be pitied. But such quarrels only occurred early in the
campaign. By the time that the Vleeschkorporaal had been a few weeks at
his work he had gained a considerable knowledge of human nature, and the
injustice of his fellows no longer troubled him. Accordingly he allowed
the complaints of the men to go in at one ear and at once to come out at
the other. The burghers, too, soon became convinced of the foolishness
of their conduct, and learnt the lesson of content and forbearance.