34° The Boer War [1899 



We've got some little sailor men, we thought you wouldn't mind, 



They'll be there ! 

 We are bringing them to see our Uncle Paul so good and kind, 



They'll be there ! 

 They have come across the ocean, they would like some tea and buns, 

 Then they'll just give you a notion how they work their little guns. 

 No, Uncle, dear, they are not at sea — they travel everywhere. 



They'll be there! 



(Chorus) So please you, Uncle Paul, just arrange a little ball 



(They're having one or two upon the way) ; 

 Majuba some went through, and they want to speak to you, 



So they're coming up to dinner Chrismas Day. 



Pretoria's a place we've often wanted for to see, 



We'll be there ! 

 The air with us, there is no doubt, will splendidly agree, 



We'll be there ! 

 Perhaps I may just mention, we are coming up in style, 

 And with the firm intention of remaining for a while ; 

 Still, Uncle, don't you worry, for mother's paid the fare. 



We'll be there ! 



(Chorus) So please you. Uncle Paul, see that there's enough for all. 



There's fifty thousand Tommies on the way, 

 And somewhere in a bag they have got a little flag 



To stick up in the pudding Christmas Day ! 



KEITH, PROWSE and CO., Cheapside, E.C. 



[N,. B. Several of our regiments did dine with Uncle Paul that 

 Christmas Day, but it was as prisoners of war.] 



" A torrent of newspaper abuse has fallen on my ' Satan Absolved.' 

 The first notices were fairly moderate, but as the war has gone more 

 and more against our Army, they have become more and more vindic- 

 tive. They began by admitting that the poetry had some eloquence ; 

 then it was found clever, but vulgar; then blasphemous, vulgar, and 

 stupid. Now the condemnation is extended to all my poems. It has 

 been discovered that the ' Songs of Proteus ' were a plagiarism on 

 Meredith's ' Modern Love ' : and that in the rest of my works I have 

 been ever sinking deeper in the mire. 



' lyth Dec. — The third and main British army is badly beaten on the 

 Tugela River. MacDonald (John Murray MacDonald), Anne's cousin 

 by marriage, who is staying with us, declares he shall go off himself to 

 fight. He is a mild semi-Jingo Radical of the school that believes the 

 British Empire has a divine mission to subdue and occupy the waste 

 places of the earth. I have been arguing the Boer case with him for 



