5th, Thursday. This morning Smitheman went to the brickfields with the Colonel and was shot at a bit. We all told him that we were afraid we shouldn’t be able to find him any entertainment as the Boers are very quiet just now, and he said we needn’t trouble. However, as the morning wore on the enemy’s sixteen-pounder commenced bombarding us from Game Tree and Jackal Tree and kept on the whole morning, apparently directed by a deserter, Private Hay, Protectorate Regiment, who selected his late fort and the headquarters of the Protectorate Regiment, as his main target. I shouldn’t care to be Private Hay after the war as there is £50 on his head, dead or alive, and the Boers are hard up. The afternoon was pretty quiet, and the Boers have now retired all round to extreme musketry range of all the town. They livened up in the evening though, and fired a good deal, landing many bullets in the square. 6th, Friday. The morning began very quietly, and we were afraid that Smitheman would not get his introduction to "Creaky." However, in the afternoon she began, and he had a full opportunity of learning the meaning of the various sounds of the bell, the joys of the rush to the "dug-out," and the philosophy with which you can see your friends in the distance shelled, when she diverted a certain portion of her fire on Cannon Kopje. Major Goold-Adams had just shifted into a new office after his former one had been destroyed, and somewhat prematurely, for "Creaky" promptly blew it up with the first shell; fortunately it was empty at the time. They gave us a good doing and stopped for the night. 7th, Saturday. We were awakened by the big gun, which kept on all day. Smitheman was again lucky. He went up to lunch at the kopje, and then they began shelling that, so he had had most of the pleasures of Mafeking compressed into three days. They pall, however, after six months. He seemed to think we were having a harder time than he anticipated, and it is very interesting to have an outside opinion, because we are so thoroughly used to it that we do not know whether it is a bad time or not, being only convinced of two things--that the place can’t fall, and that we will not get hit by a big shell if we can help it. Smitheman returned to Plumer to-night.