Tinned meats, biscuits, jams--all are gone.

"I wish to Heaven the relief column would hurry up," sighed a young officer to me.

"Poor fellow," I thought, "he longs for the letters from his own true love." "You see, we can't get any more Quaker oats," he added in explanation.
In the afternoon I took copies of the _Ladysmith Lyre_ to some of the outlying troops.

It is but a single page of four short columns, and with a cartoon by Mr.Maud.But the pathetic gratitude with which it was received, proved that to appreciate literature of the highest order, you have only to be shut up for a month under shell fire.
_November 28, 1899._ Hopeful news came of British successes, both at Estcourt and Mooi River.
The relief column is now thought to be at Frere, not far below Colenso.
A large Boer convoy, with 800 mounted men, was seen trending away towards the Free State passes, perhaps retiring.

Everybody was much cheered up.