96 THE GREAT THIRST LAND. 



the wagon to return. Holly also complains that the 

 work is too hard for him : bless my soul! he has 

 done nothing but lie in the wagon, except when eating. 

 Morris proposes taking him with him, and our friend 

 of the "Ked, White, and Blue" is anxious for the 

 arrangement. I fear he thinks me a hard and unfeeling 

 taskmaster. This I cannot help, for his own mis- 

 conduct has brought on all his troubles, and therefore I 

 have no will to do his part of the labour. 



It was discovered that at a house in the vicinity a 

 solitary place, half hotel and half shop, with no human 

 dwellings within many miles a conveyance and horses, 

 carrying the mails from Colenso, stops three or four 

 times a week. This is fortunate, for the invalid will go 

 there and wait for its arrival, where, between the rest, 

 quiet, good food, and the care of the landlord and his 

 wife, I have no doubt he will soon feel himself again. 



After this arrangement was come to, we sat down 

 to our midday meal ; it was one of the very saddest I 

 ever ate in my life ; not a word was spoken. At length 

 Morris my tried, good, kindhearted friend and myself 

 walked down to the river. He spoke bitterly of his 

 disappointment and his grief at leaving me alone; he 

 saw that any delay on my part, even that of a day, was 

 to ruin for ever any chance I possessed of getting up- 

 country, for the Boers would not wait an hour when 

 ready to treck. So he did not advise me to return. 

 However, he pointed out the hardships before me ; 

 the loneliness that I should suffer from want of com- 

 panionship, and the danger I should be exposed to 

 if I met with an accident or became ill. This had been 

 considered long before as what I had to dread, and I 

 placed my life on the stake. 



