102 A GARDEN DIARY 



sprang to meet my eye. " Very hard pressed " 

 and immediately below it the comment " Here 

 the light failed " ! 



" Here the light failed ! " That seems indeed 

 to be the summary of the whole situation. One 

 question at least we are all forced to ask, if not 

 with our lips, at least inwardly. What of Lady- 

 smith ? Will it ; can it now be reached ? and if 

 not what is the alternative ? Such thoughts 

 are gadflies, and would drive the tamest mad. 

 Restlessness gets possession of one. The thirst 

 for news, more news, ever more, and more, be- 

 comes a possession ; one that is no sooner slaked 

 than it revives afresh. My particular garden 

 boy has been turned into a mere newspaper boy, 

 and spends his whole days running downhill 

 to the station, on the bare chance of another 

 paper having come in, or of someone having 

 seen someone, who may possibly know some- 

 thing. 



Has it often happened I wonder in the history 

 of a country that this sort of external and public 

 news the news of the street and of the news- 

 paper becomes to each individual his own abso- 

 lutely private news ; news that for the moment 

 seems to supersede even the acutest personal 

 grief; news that makes the tears start, the pulses 

 throb, the heart, at apprehension of what may be 

 going to happen, literally stand still from fear ? 

 The thought of Ladysmith, it is no exaggeration 



