At the stations they grasped their coffee-pots and rushed to the locomotive to secure hot water with which to prepare their beverage.

It seldom happened that any Boer going to the front carried any liquor with him and, although the delays and vexations of the journey were sufficiently irritating to serve as an excuse, drunkenness practically never occurred.

Genuine good-fellowship prevailed among them, and no quarrelling was to be observed.

It seemed as if every one of them was striving to live the ideal life portrayed in the Testament which they read assiduously scores of times every day.

Whether a train was delayed an hour at a siding or whether it stopped so suddenly that all were thrown from their seats, there was no profane language, but usually jesting and joking instead.