from the hospital, their jackets bulging with hay for the horses.
Two bales were condemned as too musty to put into the mattresses,
and we were allowed to take them for the horses. They didn't leave
a spear of it. Isn't it pitiful? Everything that the heart of man and woman
can devise has been sent out for the "Tommies", but no one thinks
of the poor horses. They get the worst of it all the time. Even now
we blush to see the handful of hay that each horse gets at a feed.
==


The Boer War is so far off in time and space that a few further
detached references must suffice:


==
When riding into Bloemfontein met Lord ----'s funeral at the cemetery gates,
-- band, firing party, Union Jack, and about three companies.
A few yards farther on a "Tommy" covered only by his blanket,
escorted by thirteen men all told, the last class distinction
that the world can ever make.


We had our baptism of fire yesterday. They opened on us from the left flank.
Their first shell was about 150 yards in front -- direction good.
The next was 100 yards over; and we thought we were bracketed.
Some shrapnel burst over us and scattered on all sides.
I felt as if a hail storm was coming down, and wanted to turn my back,
but it was over in an instant. The whistle of a shell is unpleasant.
You hear it begin to scream; the scream grows louder and louder;
it seems to be coming exactly your way; then you realize