hour by hour, man by man, he toiled on.
And mark—and remember for the rest of your lives—that Tommy Atkins made no distinction between the wounded enemy and his dearest friend. To the men who in the afternoon were lying down behind the rocks with rifles pointed to kill him, who hid shot, may-be, the comrade of his heart, he gave the last drop of his water, the list drop of his melting strength, the last drop of comfort he could wring out of his scarred, gallant soul. In war, they say—and it is truc—men grow callous; an afternoon shooting and the loss of your brother hurts "you less than a week before did a thorn in your dog's foot. But it. is only compassion for the dead that dries up; and as it dries, the spring wells up good men of sympathy with all the 'A few men had made fire in the gnawing damp and cold, and round it they sit, even the unwounded Boer prisoners. For themselves they took the outer ring, and not word d wy that could mortify the wound of In the afternoon Tommy was a hero, in the evening he was Do not forge> either the doctors of the enemy. We found their wounded with our own, and it was pardonable to be glad that wher our set their teeth in silence, some of theirs wept and groaned. Not all, though; we found Mr Kock, General and member al Executive, lying high on massive, white-beard patriarch, ina black frock-cent and trousers.
WITH simple me sity, i dying man to command, rung voice, 'Take me down the hill and lay me in a tent; Tam wounded by three bullets.' Tt was a bad day for the Kock family; four were on the field, and all were hit. They found Comm hid, too, the German free-lance. lying witha bullet through his thigh, near the two guns which no German or Dutchman would ever serve again. Then thei were three field-cornets out of four, new bers of the Vol psecttors—Heaven only But their own doctors were among them almost as soon as we.
Under the Red Cross—under the black sky, too, and the drizzle, and the creeping cold—we stood and kicked numbed feet in the mud, and talked together of the fight.
prisoner or two allowed out to look for wounded came and joined in. We were all! most friendly, and naturally congratulated Rhodesia each other on having done so well. These se Boers were neither sullen nor complaisant. 'They had fought their best, and lost; they were neither ashamed nor angry. They were manly and courteous, and through thei untrimmed beards and rough corduroys These Boers sight. be' brutal, wight be voice said very plainly, Ruling race. treacherous; but they held their heads like gentlemen.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.