A Sudden Collapse--The Winter Begins--Tired of the War 270 XLVI Night Duty again--A Sick Convoy arrives in the Night--A bad Pneumonia Case--Nearly Frozen 277 XLVII Mentioned in Despatches--Ill with Dysentery--A Night at Pinetown--With my Brother to Uitenhage 283 XLVIII At Port Elizabeth--Down the Coast to Mossel Bay--We drive, _via_ George, to Oudtshoorn--Martial Law--Under escort to Prince Albert Road--By Train to Kimberley 290 XLIX Tales of the Siege--"Long Cecil"--Refugee Camps--A Picnic under Arms 298 L By Train to Cape Town--Night Sister on a Troopship--Some Sad Cases--Home Once More 305 A NURSE'S LIFE IN WAR AND PEACE I THE SCHOOL, LINCOLN, 1888. This is my usual day for writing letters, and I have nothing but the usual things to write to you about. Each day we get up at the same time, do the same sort of lessons (not very difficult), eat the same sort of food (not very interesting), and go for the same dull walks, with an occasional game of tennis on a badly-kept lawn; but I have been thinking, and the long and short of it is, that I am going to persuade my people to let me leave school. I think you know that some years ago I determined that I would be a nurse. To be exact, it was in 1883 that Queen Victoria instituted the Royal Red Cross, and in the same year I was grieving over the fact that none of the professions in which my brothers were distinguishing themselves would be open to me, as I was "only a girl"; so I at once decided that I would try to win the Royal Red Cross. Well, I am not thinking so much about the decoration now, as wars seem to be few and far between; but still I think the nursing profession is the only one I am a bit fitted for, and lately I have been reading everything I can get hold of on the subject. You see, I am not a bit clever, and I am no good at music or languages; so I could never teach. And, on account of having been so delicate when I was small, I am behind most girls of my age in many subjects; but in the two terms that I have been here I have won two prizes, and I think I can work up any subject that I want to as well as most people can. I know I am not old enough to begin nursing yet, but when I am, it may be necessary to pay for my first year's training, so I very much want them to save the money they are now paying for my education to pay for that, as it seems to me that I am being stuffed with many subjects that, after I leave school, I shall have no further use for.