I said, “What am I going to do with the ‘khakis’ now? I thought they were not coming back again.” And just a week after they had left, back they were again. They came towards us in their thousands. However, the doctor was with us now. Colonel Williams came up to me and said that General Hamilton was coming to see me. He had news of General De la Rey. “Very well,” I said, “let him come.” Then came Hamilton with a telegram from General De la Rey asking him if he had met me, and what had happened to me. He said that he had answered that they had met me and had done nothing to me, and that all was well with me. We did not know anything yet of what they had been doing at Pretoria. We were anxious to have news of the peace negotiations, but I could not hear anything more. The English behaved reasonably this time and did us no harm. They wanted to stay on in the place, but there was not enough water for such a large army, therefore they went away again. I was so unhappy that I had lost all my oxen; and now the water, that had always been troubled, was so dirty, owing to all the troops that had been staying there, that I felt still less inclination to stop on. Fortunately Mr D. van der Merwe succeeded in escaping with the Government cattle. He gave me two beasts to be slaughtered and two milch cows. It was sad to hear the tales of how the “khakis” were now behaving to the people. A woman came to me weeping and grieving bitterly. “What is the matter with you?” I said. “Oh, they have taken away my big Bible, in which all my children’s names were entered. They have taken everything away--nothing is left to me; but if only I could get my Bible back!” I said, “Why did you not hold it in your arms when the ‘khakis’ were taking everything away?” “Oh,” she said, “I and my children were standing there watching everything in bitter anguish. We were in a ruined house. When they drove the door in I could not bear to be with them any longer, and I went out of the house with the children; and so they took it away without my seeing.” I said, “I think I should have been able to get it back for you; but now they have, unfortunately, all gone away, and I am afraid I cannot help you.” These were the hardest days of all for me. My flour had come to an end, and although the Boers had a small flour mill with them when they were fleeing, I was not able to get at it, so that I had to use my coffee mill for grinding. Having so many children with me made it very hard sometimes; but the children had also been through so much by this time that every difficulty gradually righted itself. As they were still very young, and had always been used to go regularly to school, it was often very wearying for them. It is not very comfortable to be constantly wandering over the veldt, especially in this fashion.