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neckclotli again. On arriving in the town I went to the 
Crown hotel, and there found a welcome budget of letters 
and papers ; and after engaging a photographer to come out 
the next morning and take ourselves and the wagons, &c., 
I rode out to meet E., who had started on the last trek, and 
we camped for the last time on the veldt just outside the 
town. "We left Pieter-Maritzburg on May 8th, and have 
been just twenty-two weeks and five days on our travels 
up country. It is pleasant of course, in some ways, to be 
back in civilization again, but one can't help feeling some 
regret that a very pleasant trip has come to an end. The 
travelling down below the Berg already seems like a dream, 
and I find it difiicult to realize the fact of our having been 
through so much rough life, especially as regards E. ; and 
by the time we get to England I suppose it will be the 
same with the wagon travelling. We are all in capital 
case, and, in fact, throughout the trip have, thank God, 
enjoyed most wonderful health and strength. 
Next morning the photographer arrived, and took the 
wagons with and without the oxen, and also photographed 
the party that had been in the ^^fly country,'' including 
old ^^Slangey" and Sara — ^^Slangey" being the only 
Caffre that had been through the trip from beginning to 
end. After the operation we sent the wagons into the 
market square, and the oxen to feed and enjoy themselves 
on the neighbouring hills, and took up our quarters at the 
Crown. Woodroffe came in to see us in the evening, and 
we had a long and pleasant talk far into the night, and 
were much surprised to find that since he left us he was 
engaged to be married. It seemed so odd to sleep in a 
room again, and we felt quite oppressed by the four walls 
and comparative scarcity of air. I hardly knew E. again 
when she appeared in her bettermost clothes. Next day we 
were busy packing and arranging our goods, and sorting 
the contents of the wagons, preparatory to the sale of 
