BECKHAMPTON TO SOUTH AFRICA 69 



which is next my own. Thus were they all 

 forced, however unwillingly, to at least acknow- 

 ledge the existence of the New Year, though 

 most did it under keen apprehension that some- 

 thing had ' gone wrong with the works.' Holy- 

 stoning the decks just above your head is a sort 

 of sound you do not readily satisfy yourself about. 

 I myself thought it was some practical joke, but it 

 was very real business, and the next morning the 

 chief officer gloried in it. Meanwhile — or rather 

 later, to be strictly accurate — the sun had risen, 

 bringing in a New Year. " 



I have drawn on " The Special Commissioner " 

 for these intermediate experiences, as they are 

 more agreeable than were my own during the 

 same period. 



Still quoting from my friend's diary, I can 

 clearly call to mind what rapid benefit I received 

 from the voyage. On January 3, 1902, he wrote : 



" Already his friends in England would hardly 

 know our friend, Sam Darling, who is as fresh as 

 The benefit ^ ^^^^j ^^^ is developing great skill at 

 of a voyage ^he game of ' Bull' I have just been 

 playing deck quoits with him, and, if all goes on 

 as well as it now promises, he will return to England 

 a ten years younger man. These facts will, I am 

 sure, be of interest to my readers, so many of whom 

 are interested in the Beckhampton trainer and his 



