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TEE AGBICULTUBAL JOURNAL. 



■working towards Ladysmith. Oh, those 

 roads, and the weather we had, and the 

 long hours ;■ how we sarvived it I do not 

 know. Very rarely we had a rest, and 

 when we did get one, nasty re- 

 marks were made about lazy 

 brutes, etc. It was during a 

 rest that we experienced one of 

 the most peculiar incidents of the war. 

 We had had a day off, when an officer 

 came riding along, halted, inspected us 

 very carefully for about a minute, then 

 called for our condactor. I had taken a 

 dislike to him the moment he had ridden 

 up, because he had a lot of red about his 

 neck, and anything rod puts our backs up 

 at once ; it seems to irritate us. I thought 

 to myaelf : Thank goodness the British 

 Army fights in khaki now, or a lot of us 

 would be malkop (wrong in the 

 head). However, up came the conductor, 

 and was asked how long we had been 

 resting " Two days, sir." " Have they 

 been exercised this morning?" "Beg 

 pardon, sir." Repeats the question. " No 

 sir." "Why the blazes not? Tell the 

 driver he must take them out exercising 

 every day for two hours, and give them 

 an occasional trot, and see that this is 

 carried out until they start work again." 

 "Yes sir." Now, what do you think of 

 that : begrudging us our hard-earned 

 rest, as if we did not get enough exercise 

 hunting about for decent grass. How- 

 ever, it was an order, and we ivere exer- 

 cised ! But thank goodness, never again. 

 This extraordinary performance was re- 

 ported everywhere, until it came back to 

 the same old " Someone had blundered." 

 This was nearly as bad as the Remount 

 Officer during the Afghan Campaign, who 

 condemned the first batch of camels that 

 were sent him on account of broken 

 knees 1 So I have heard. 1 began to 

 have a regular run of bad luck ; for some 

 reason or other I got into the driver's bad 

 books, and he was constantly "going for 

 me." I had heard that Dutch drivers 

 always had a white ox in their span 

 which they call Englishman, and 

 whenever anything went wrong, or the 

 wagon got stuck, Englishman got it hot ; 

 and vice versa, English transport- riders 

 very often used to call their laziest ox 

 Dutchman, and he was always " forrit." 

 But I was certainly not la/y, nor was I 

 called Dutchman (my name being Vet- 



penrae, by Vetboy— Sixpense) just one of 

 the several misfortunes of war. 



As winter came along we began to lose 

 condition fast, and the weaker oxen were 

 beginning to drop out during any long 

 trek, so we were given lucerne, or oat 

 h;ty (straw we called the latter), and we 

 Avere issued a Government sleeping 

 blanket. This covering certainly helped 

 to ward off the cutting cold winds, but 

 whenever it rained, we knew all about it 

 the next day when we had to pull sixteen 

 wet rugs in addition to the usually heavy 



load. . 



I must bring these lowmgs ot 

 the herd to a close. What broke 

 our hearts in after months was con- 

 voy work, long treks with very little 

 time for grazing, and (as the Gover- 

 nor of N. Carolina said to the Governor of 

 S. Carolina) a long time between drinks. 

 Up at 4 a.m., and inspanned, stand about 

 until 5.30 a.m., then start, move a mile or 

 two then halt, perhaps an outspan from 

 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., then on until dark, out- 

 spanned and tied up for the night. It 

 was a marvel we didn't all die. No 

 wonder nasty remarks were made by the 

 Tommies every time we were driven up 

 to be inspanned. " Them oxen 'as good 

 points, and no beefstake about it." 

 " "Ow's 'e for the cold storage, eh Bill ? 

 Guess we must 'ave had his mate for 

 dinner to-day." " Look at them 'erring- 

 gutted kangaroos." " 'E's well trained 

 any'ow ; if you could get a lamp fixed up 

 inside 'im on a dark night it would be a 

 bit of all right." " Tht m's all right, but 

 they could do with a good drink, I reckon." 

 " Just struck me I bought ter 'a been a 

 hartist ; I fancy I could draw that there 

 box with a bit o' string." This was jolly 

 for us wasn't it, having to listen to this 

 outburst of wit every day, but they didn't 

 mean to hurt our feelings. Tommy s all 

 right, and is a good-hearted chap at 

 bottom. I heard one say to himself after 

 looking at us : " Poor 'arf starved devils, 

 but I don't know how the war would 

 have got along without 'ein." But the 

 Staff ! I had heard all kinds of rumours 

 in my early days, generally warning me 

 to keep clear of the Staff, but I had always 

 looked upon it in my imagination as a 

 thick stick for walloping the after-oxen 

 when no after-sjambok (a " persuader 

 made generally from buffalo hide) was 



