In this realm there was a dingy bed, two chairs, and a washstand, with one lame leg, supported by an aged footstool.

Clothes and garments were hanging on nails, pans lay about the hearth, a sewing-machine stood on a bare deal table.

Over the bed was hung an oleograph, from a Christmas supplement, of the birth of Jesus, and above it a bayonet, under which was printed in an illiterate hand on a rough scroll of paper: "Gave three of em what for at Elandslaagte.

S.Hughs." Some photographs adorned the walls, and two drooping ferns stood on the window-ledge.

The room withal had a sort of desperate tidiness; in a large cupboard, slightly open, could be seen stowed all that must not see the light of day.