"Linger longer, _laager_,
Linger longer loo.
If we have no _laager_,
What will Col. Blow do?
"Stair will ne'er desert him,
`Monty' will be true.
Then linger longer, _laager_,
Linger longer, loo."
_Laager Ballads_.
There followed many blank days. Week after week went by without news of
any kind coming in. We only knew that our men were all together now,
and marching on to Matabeleland. The question with us was to kill time
and fearsome thought, and to kill time was a nearly impossible thing to
do. Amusements there were none, of course, and occupations had to be
invented. An interest in life had to be borne within, for in the
external life of the town nothing happened to excite interest. The men,
it is true, were kept always on the _qui vive_ by the indefatigable
Commandant, and when they were not drilling on the square or practising
with the Hotchkiss they were away on patrol and picket duty. Even if
they had not been so busy they were not a very interesting crowd; I
imagine the men left behind to look after the women seldom are. They
may be the real heroes; but they don't look like it; and I don't fancy
they feel like it. The cause of their being left behind in the first
place is generally physical unfitness or some domestic or official
reason that puts them out of conceit with themselves, and out of love
with life in general. Even a man like Colonel Blow, left in charge of a
town in a position of great responsibility and trust, grew morose and
surly, thinking of the excitement he was missing at the front and the
fighting he was hopelessly out of. It was said that on its being
decided that he was to be left behind he spent a whole day wiring
appeals to Dr Jim and Mr Rhodes, and in the intervals walking round
and round his office shouting bad words about "a lot of women and
children any one could look after!" Not very flattering to the women
and children, of course, but one could quite understand the attitude of
mind and believe that in the same case one would say the same thing.
There must be something gloriously exciting in riding through starry
nights and sunlit days to fight for your country and your rights. There
is nothing at all glorious in sitting safe and snug at home killing time
until good news comes in.
I was very sorry for pale, handsome Maurice Stair with his crippled arm.
He could not even go out on patrol or picket duty, because it was
impossible for him to carry a gun. He always sought me when he had a
spare half-hour, and afterwards I used to feel quite exhausted from the
prolonged effort of trying to cheer him up. It was like trying to pull
a heavy bucket up a well and never quite succeeding in getting it to the
top. He often said:
"Thank God for you, anyway; the only sound, sweet spot in the rottenest
apple I've ever put my teeth into."
I would laugh at this exaggeration of my usefulness in trying to jeer
him out of the blues: but I felt I deserved some praise for such work.
"Absurd! You know very well you adore this country, like all the rest
of the men, and would never be happy in a `boiled' shirt again."
"Oh, wouldn't I? Try me! If it were not for one person I would leave
Fort George to-day and show Africa the cleanest pair of heels she ever
saw step on to a Cape liner."
He looked at me so embarrassingly on this occasion that I did not care
to ask him who the person was. I said:
"Yes, and you would be back within a year, trying to sneak in by the
East Coast route, hoping no one would notice you'd been away."
But he would deny the Witch unceasingly, saying that she had no lure for
him--all because he was longing to be in the thick of things with the
other men, and because of the tormenting thought that he was staying
behind like a woman while history was being made within a few hundred
miles.
Certainly it was hard on a high-spirited boy, ambitious, with fighting
blood in his veins. All his people had been soldiers for generations,
he told me, but for some reason his uncle had not wished him to enter
the army, and so he had sought life in places where at least there were
always chances of irregular fighting. And now that a chance had come
along--here he was! It really _was_ bad luck, and I comforted him as
best I might. But I had my own troubles to bear.
The Salisbury women made things as difficult as they could for me. Mrs
Valetta and Miss Cleeve began to cultivate the acquaintance of the Fort
George women, and the result became directly apparent to my mental skin,
always extremely susceptible to change of atmosphere. Where I had
before met pleasant southerly breezes I now encountered chilly winds and
frost.
At first I felt rather bitterly about it, and inclined to resent this
injustice on the part of the domesticated little Fort George bevy. But
I lived that mood down. Having plenty of leisure and solitude in which
to think things out, those first few weeks I got round in time to their
point of view, and saw the situation through their eyes. From what they
had been told by my recent chaperon and had observed for themselves on
the sight of Anthony's departure, they were bound to suppose that I was,
to put it in the mildest way, lax about things conventional; and of
course a woman who is that must expect to be looked upon as a sort of
pirate, and the direct enemy of gentle, simple-hearted women who are
devoting their lives to the task of being good wives and mothers.
In the homes of such women, who by quiet, ceaseless, uncomplaining toil
and task were forming the backbone of the country in which they lived,
patriotism is born, and fine ideals, and the love of everything that is
"strong and quiet like the hills." What right had I to hate them if,
hearing that I was a traitor to their cause, they looked sideways at me?
Naturally, if they believed it true that I loved a married man and
gloried in it, they saw in me a conspirator against their own peace and
happiness. What was to save their own husbands from my lures and wiles
when they came back? Perhaps that was how they looked at it.
It was only by the aid of these reflections and my sure conviction of
being in the right that I freed myself from bitterness against them.
Later I grew quite tolerant; but it was some time before I could begin
to think of offering my good gold for such silver as they grudged me.
However, as the blank days went by and Anthony's words and wishes came
to be more than ever the only things in my world, I began to glance
about me with hungry eyes for a little of the silver they were so greedy
about. I had not far to look, once my eyes were opened. Everywhere
about me were children; restless, constrained, confined, and hopelessly
bored children. Some one once said (I think it was Kipling, who knows
all about children as well as about everything else under the sun) that
grown-up people do not always realise that boredom to children means
acute and active misery.
Well, the Fort George children were bored, and acutely, actively
miserable. They had nowhere to go and nothing to do. Their favourite
haunt, a line of little low kopjes just outside the town, was out of
bounds and forbidden. The shallow river with its pools and flat rocks
and silver-sanded bottom, the scene of many old delights, was likewise
beyond safe precincts. Everything was forbidden but to prowl about in
the small town with never a rock or a tree to play on: only locked and
silent huts, and their own homes from which they were constantly chased
by busy mothers, who in the general dearth of servants had all the
washing acid cooking to do.
Oh! the little sulky, dissatisfied faces that I met, not only sulky but
peaked and pale; for when children do not get exercise that interests
and amuses them they soon begin to look unhealthy. My duty seemed to be
plainly marked out for me.
I thanked Heaven they were mostly boys. I don't think I could have
organised sewing classes and spelling bees.
But I love children and therefore I know something about them, so I did
not go headlong into the business, looking for snubs. Snubs are not
pleasant fare at the best of times, and I think children's snubs are the
most unswallowable; they are so sincere and to the point. I began my
campaign by loafing about idly every morning just after breakfast,
meeting them in the bypaths, and dropping a word here and there just to
shew that I too was bored to madness. Gradually they recognised in me a
fellow-martyr, and after a day or two they began to gravitate naturally
in my direction as a centre where they could come and record their
complaints. I allowed myself to be treated as a sort of slot-machine,
where any one could come and drop a serious grievance instead of a
penny, and sometimes get something back. However, I did not give much
back. Children distrust grown-ups who give too much, or talk too much--
especially in the first critical stages of friendship. They prefer to
do all the talking themselves.
In time they wanted to know what they should call me. I told them
"Goldie," a pet name of mine, and somehow that clinched the matter.
Afterwards they gave me their full confidence, and I took firm hold and
immediately began to impose upon it. The transition from favourite to
tyrant can be swift and very simple, and I soon had an Empire which I
ruled over like a Caesar.
Games were the order of the day. First of all we took the tennis-court
in hand--the tennis-court where I had dreamed bits of my beautiful dream
and which lay now like a desolate and accursed spot covered with dead
leaves, old papers, and rubbish! In one day it was swept and garnished,
and in two it was rolled and marked to a degree of perfection it had
never known before. On the third day I divided the children up into
quartettes and taught them tennis in batches. They had never been
allowed to so much as glance in the direction of the court before, it
being considered solely and sacredly the property of the grown-ups. Now
they bounced upon it like balls, and yells of delight and victory woke
the dull echoes and rang through the town. We had some glorious days.
But to all fine things an end must be, and just as everything had been
got into splendid working order, with two clubs formed for the purpose
of competition, a popular arrangement made for the scouting of balls,
and an entertainment committee selected, down swooped the grown-ups,
headed by Mrs Skeffington-Smythe, and wrested the court away from us.
"Surely the only recreation in the place is not going to be taken away
from us by these brats!" was their plaintive cry, and in my absence one
morning, minding Mrs Marriott who was ill, my little crowd was
intimidated and dismissed crestfallen. Like all Irish-Americans I have
a "drop of the tiger" in me, and I fought for our rights. But when Mrs
Skeffington-Smythe went round and got the mothers on their side I had to
give in. It was no use encouraging insubordination to mothers; that I
very well knew would end in my defeat as well as the children's.
"Oh, let them have their old court," I said. "Soldiering is ever so
much greater fun. But we must make a parade ground first, or Colonel
Blow will be mad if we use the square except for very special
occasions."
So we made a parade ground for ourselves with very great labour and the
joy that comes with toil or the world would work no more. Then,
Heavens! how I drilled them! Every exercise and manoeuvre known to the
mind of man and gymnasium mistresses was brought into force, and every
atom of information acquired or inherited from a family that had always
produced soliders came to my aid and was brought into active use. Not
the least of my accomplishments was that at this juncture I roped in
Mrs Marriott and Mrs Rookwood to make uniforms for my regiment.
At various shops in the town I found plenty of red twill. It is called
"limbo" in Mashonaland and used for "swapping" with the natives in
return for hens and rice and eggs and things. This I commandeered in
large quantities and carried off to Mrs Rookwood. Like all colonial
women she was clever with her hands, and could cut out and make
anything, from a ball-gown to a suit of clothes. Indeed, she told me
that she had actually without any help made the ravishing suit of khaki
in which she started for the front, having cut it out and set to work at
the first rumour of trouble with the natives.
She now at my instigation designed a most fascinating uniform, in which
the boys looked as gallant as French Zouaves, and the girls, with their
skirts tucked into the baggy bloomers, like incipient, rather fat,
Turks. The first full-dress parade, held in the market square, was an
entrancing spectacle. In the first flush of admiration Colonel Blow was
moved to permit the convicts to erect cross-bars and a trapeze, make us
some rough dumb-bells and put up a great strong pole for a giant's
stride in the centre of our recreation ground. Mr Stair contributed a
mile or two of stout rope, and lo! we had a stride that was the crowning
delight of life, but that I am fain to say was not confined to the
children; for between patrols and picket duties many grown-up khaki legs
might have been seen flying round amongst the scarlet bloomers.
Cricket also became one of the serious affairs of life. And I taught
them handball against the jail wall which appeared to have been built
expressly for the purpose of the Irish national game. Of course I am
half Irish and that must be taken into account when I say that next to
baseball it is the greatest game in the world for exercising both body
and brain. Played at its best it is a splendid swift panorama of
rippling muscles, dancing feet, sparkling eyes, and racing thoughts.
You can actually, by the player's intent, eye, tell how he is going to
smash that ball, which will come two strokes later, into the middle of
next week.
I should have liked to get up a baseball team too; but there was a
difficulty about "bats" and the mothers were afraid of eyes being put
out and noses broken. Perhaps they were right. Anyway, we had games
enough to keep us alive and busy and young. I was not very ancient
myself, but felt myself growing younger every day amongst those
fascinating Fort George children, and I began to swagger and brag about
them as if they were my own.
Four weeks after our first going into _laager_ no one would have
recognised them for the gang of discontented reprobates they had been.
Bright cheeks, serene eyes, and lumps of muscle like young cocoanuts on
their legs and arms were now their most distinguishing features.
I had pride also in their changed demeanour. Of course they were still
noisy and often naughty--what child worth its salt is not? But drill
and discipline had done a great deal for them, and though they were gay
and rowdy-dowdy they were no longer the melancholy, meaningless, and
rather malicious monkeys to whom I had first made advances.
And at night in _laager_ they really behaved well. It is true that they
did not go to bed like lambs, and sometimes on a hot stuffy night there
would be a row in the dormitories that called for my special
intervention. A mother would come to our post-office den and say:
"Oh, Miss Saurin, would you come and speak to Jimmy?" or Cliffie or
Sally--or some one or other. And I would be obliged to confront the
criminal wearing the air of a Caesar reproaching his Brutus with a last
"_Et tu_?"
Nearly always that would suffice, but sometimes I had to ring a change
and in dramatic tones threaten the offender with the prospect of running
the gauntlet or the extreme penalty of having his honours stripped from
his breast before the eyes of the world. Jimmy Grant wore my Bisley
medal: for highest cricket score. Cliffie Shannon had a miniature of
President Grover Cleveland set in amethysts strung round his wiry neck:
for measuring biggest round the calf. Claude Macdonald (an Aberdeen
Presbyterian) proudly displayed a Pius IX bronze medal, and I believe
secretly considered the "_super nos spiritus de excelso_" as being
specially applicable to his prowess in running. Various members of the
brigade wore twisted silver bangles of which I fortunately had a number.
It would have been a serious matter to have been deprived of these
decorations, and a threat of such a tragedy was usually quite enough to
ensure good conduct.
But on the whole the nice things behaved with a reasonableness that
would have become many of the older people in _laager_. Among the Dutch
folk many disagreeable incidents occurred. Neither were some of our
guardians and defenders above reproach. The men who were off duty often
made merry in their own quarters, and in dull times it is supposed that
they essayed to keep their spirits up by pouring spirits down. Colonel
Blow and his staff kept good order, but there were some incorrigibles
and one of the worst was Mr Skeffington-Smythe. Often on hot nights we
were obliged to close our tiny porthole window which overlooked the main
yard and do without air rather than be disturbed by the thrilling
conversations which occurred between Mrs Skeffington-Smythe, safely and
exclusively tied inside her tent, and Monty, returned late from a
convivial gathering, clamouring piteously without:
"Porkie! Porkie! Let me in... Darling! Let me in! How am I to sleep
out in this infernal yard?"
"Go away!"
"Porkie!" in a yearning, heart-searing tone.
"Go away! Wretch! Pig!"
"Nina, was it for this I came down through deadly danger to mind you,
instead of going off with all the fellows to have a good time at the
front?"
Exclamations of disgust, quite indescribable, from inside the tent.
"I bet they're having a better time than I am now, Porkie!"
"Oh, you wretched little worm! _Will_ you go away!"
Thus it was between Porkie Skeffington-Smythe and the gallant Monty, who
was at one time thought to be on his way to the Victoria Cross!