The Story of Baden-Powell: 'The Wolf That Never Sleeps'Begbie, Harold
History
The Story of Baden-Powell: 'The Wolf That Never Sleeps'
Begbie, Harold
Baden-Powell of Gilwell, Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, Baron, 1857-1941
Then there was the bitterest work of all. The closing of suffering
eyes that had grown so strangely dear during the hardships of such
work as this; the saying of farewells to the men who had raced by
one's side with Death at their heels for how many hard weeks. Of one
of these Baden-Powell writes in his diary: "His death is to me like
the snatching away of a pleasing book half read." And solemn as the
funeral service ever is, one fancies how awe-inspiring, how poignant
its impressiveness, when in the dark, "among the gleams of camp-fires
and lanterns, with a storm of thunder and lightning gathering round,"
a few fighting Englishmen heard its message over the body of a
fellow-soldier.
Baden-Powell's description of the day's work at this time gives one a
good idea of the life of a patrol. This is what he wrote in his diary
for his mother's eyes: "Our usual daily march goes thus: Reveille and
stand to arms at 4.30, when Orion's belt is overhead. (The natives
call this Ingolobu, the pig, the three big stars being three pigs, and
the three little ones being the dogs running after them; this shows
that Kaffirs, like other nations, see pictures in constellations.) We
then feed horses--if we have anything to feed them with, which is not
often; light fires and boil coffee; saddle-up, and march off at 5.15.
We go on marching till about 9.30 or 10, when we off-saddle and lie up
for the heat of the day, during which the horses are grazed, with a
guard to look after them, and we go a-breakfasting, bathing, and in
theory writing and sketching, but in practice sleeping, at least so
far as the flies will allow. At 3.30 saddle-up and march till 5.30;
off-saddle and supper; then we march on again, as far as necessary,
in the cool hours of the early night. On arriving at the end of our
march, we form our little laager; to do this we put our saddles down
in a square, each man sleeping with his head in the saddle, and the
horses inside the square, fastened in two lines on their 'built up'
ropes. To go to bed we dig a small hole for our hip-joints to rest in,
roll ourselves up in our horse-blanket, with our heads comfortably
ensconced in the inside of the saddle, and we would not then exchange
our couch for anything that Maple could try and tempt us with."
But after months of this hard work, the tireless B.-P. began to knock
up. Fever and dysentery attacked him, and he said unkind things to
people who bothered him--as witness the message sent to one of the
patrolling columns: "If you let the men smoke on a night march, you
might as well let the band play too." The justness of the gibe!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account