Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1902-04-25
tays young De Wet, "my old mother


made an awful fuss. She put me to
bed and bathed and bandaged my leg,
crying all the time until | felt like a
baby. The hole healed up in the course
of q week or so, and when | started to
join Joubert's commando she made an
other fuss. My father only said: Let
the young whelp go. He'll have to
learn it sooner or later. Go on,
Adolph.'
"Six months later, when I came back
for more clothes and a day or two of
rest, mother drove me out of the house
with a broom.
"'Why are you not fighting with the
other menT she asked. Go back and
stay until you have driven the ruineks
into the sea-
"That was the cry of all our women
after they had heard how the British
were burning houses and barns, Drive
the ruineks into the sea- they told us.
Well, we tried anyway"
Then my young Bocr friend told me
why the fatalities among the British
officers have been so much larger than
among the British privates. 1t was be-
cause the officers did not respect Boer
wonanhood. "That is why" he said,
setting his jaw squarely, 1--WE would let
q dozen soldiers pass and wait for
chance to pick off an officer"
OF Tommy Atkins young De Wet
spoke in almost friendly terms, with
hardly trace of animosty. Hes
good fellow, as n rule and nine times
out of ten he's half ashamed of HIM
self for fighting us. We had some fun
ny experiences with the soldiers. One
night a small commando of us was on
the fly from one range of hills to an
other About midnight we ran across
q camp. One of our men crawled ahead
to find out what sort of a camp it was.
He did not come back, so we closed in.
Pretty soon we saw what had hap
pened. We had stumbled on a squad
ron of British troops, and one of their
sentries had caught our scout. They
had taken him up to the campfire and
were poking fun at him.
"'Aha! We got you that time, didn't
weT they were saying. They thought
it a great joke. They were all laugh
other sentries were craning their necks
TO see what was going on.
"In the meantime we had spread out
until we surrounded the camp. Our
commandant passed the word to sneak
up and grab the sentries. One at a
time-and there were six of them-we
got them all, grabbing them from be-
hind and clappng a hand over their
mouths so that they could not give the
alarm. Then we posted our own men
in their places
"There was a situation for you-a
British camp with Boer sentries! |
laughed until my sides ached. And by
the campfire the soldiers were joking
our man. we got you that time, didn't
we" they kept saying. Some one whis-
pered around that it was time to turn
the tables. They gave us the word.
From the black night around them the
English heard deep chorus: Aha!
We got you that time, didn't we?
"They knew the game was up. Their
arms were stacked, their sentres cap
tive. They stared into the dark with
open mouths. They didn't know which
way to turn. Then we laughed. They
saw the joke and laughed too. Then
they scattered and ran for it, AS they
passed us in the dark we grabbed them
and threw them. Some got through
the line, but in half an hour we had
them all, bunch of fifty"
"And them | asked.
"Why," said young De Wet, "ther
we all went back into camp, had some
thing to eat, smoked our pipes and tolt
stories until daybreak. That was 6