The shells were little gems in their way, and when they did not burst, which was often the case, were tremendously in request as souvenirs.

Not much larger than an ordinary pepper-caster, when polished up and varnished they made really charming ornaments, and the natives were quick to learn that they commanded a good price, for after a shower had fallen there was a helter-skelter amongst the black boys for any unexploded specimens.

One evening we had a consignment into the road just outside my bomb-proof, attracted by a herd of mules going to water.

Immediately the small piccaninny driving these animals scampered off, returning in triumph with one of these prizes, which he brought me still so hot that I could not hold it.

It used often to strike me how comic these scenes at Mafeking would have been to any aeronaut hovering over the town of an evening, especially when the shelling had been heavy.