CHAPTER XX.
SUN AND FEVER _February 3, 1900._ The day was fairly quiet.

Old "Bulwan Billy" did not fire at us at all, and there was no movement in the distant Boer camps, though the universal belief is that the enemy is concentrating round Ladysmith for a fresh attack.
In the evening the rations were issued to the civilians under Major Thompson's new regulations in the Market House.

Each child, or whoever else is sent, now brings his ticket; it is verified at a table, the cost is added daily to each account, the child is sent on down the shed to draw his allowance of tea and sugar, his loaf, and bit of horse.

The organisation is admirable, but one feels it comes a little late in the day.

The same is true of the new biscuit tins which are to be put up as letter-boxes about the camp for a local post, and of the new plan of making sandals for the men out of flaps of saddles and the buckets for cavalry carbines.