As everything was destroyed on the high veldt, the reader will naturally ask how we got anything to eat, as we had no carts or wagons to carry food. I will tell him just how we managed to live and grow fat and strong on nothing. Before the rainy season set in, about October, the burghers would pull out their hidden plows, put the fields in good shape and then plant their mealies, (Indian corn). All this had to be done under the cover of darkness, and it meant a great deal of hard, tiresome work. In the following March and April we would have plenty of green mealies, and, later on, dry mealies. The English could not destroy these crops, though they tried and failed. If they turned their horses out to eat and trample it down, the green corn would kill them. When the corn ripened and became dry they tried to burn it, but failed because there was little or no grass in the fields. The result was that we had mealies on the stalk in all the districts. Many would be gathered, hidden in the high reeds along the small rivers, or buried in nice, dry pits. The English have often ridden over these without discovering them. Now, the reader may understand how we had mealies to eat ourselves, and some besides for our horses. [Illustration: CAPTAIN WILLIAMS Commanding Boer Scouts.] The English took all the Kaffirs away and burnt their kraals. In these kraals there were large Kaffir baskets, some that would hold fifty bags of mealies or Kaffir corn. The English would set these on fire, but they would not burn. Then they would destroy the baskets and scatter the corn. In a pinch we would take this corn, wash and dry it and find it as good as ever with the exception of a little sand or gravel that might be in it. But a hungry soldier has little regard for sand and gravel under the circumstances. Now, we always had cattle near by, and generally two or three good fat bullocks with us. These we would drive along with us, until they were wanted. In every mess of two or three men, there was one ordinary coffee mill, but of course we had neither coffee nor sugar. We used these mills, however, to grind the corn into a rather coarse meal. It was hard, tedious work, but do it we must, if we were to have anything with our fresh meat. Having ground sufficient meal for breakfast, a small tin pot filled with water would be brought to the boiling point, the meal carefully stirred in and constantly stirred for about forty minutes, when it would be cooked. Of course we had no salt; so our fresh meat would be thrown into the ashes, broiled to suit each one's taste, and then breakfast was ready. There is ammonia or some other kind of salts in the ashes, that help the meat out. For coffee, we had in each little mess another small tin bucket, which would be filled with water and boiled. Some meal would be burnt in a small pan, till black, and then put into the boiling water; this makes a very good drink, but I don't believe, reader, that you would like it.