Authority (Assistant Superintendent):  “En wanneer eet julle Boere dan breakfast?” (And when do you Boers eat your breakfast?)

“O, ik het laatste in Brandfort breakfast ge’eet; hier het ik schars genoeg vir dinner” (O, I had breakfast last at Brandfort; here I get scarce enough for dinner).

Had nice nap on sofa after dinner; what a noble thing a house is; how spacious, how high, how cool!  How unnecessarily large people do build houses nowadays.

At 2.45 had to race back for afternoon service; young people; great crowd (700 about); prepared sermon during the fifteen minutes’ walk.  Record service; forty-five minutes.

Went through two wards hospital.

Mrs. De Wet dying; poor old mother!  But she said all along she wouldn’t get well again; several very sick there.

Now for glorious bed.

P.S.—­Not yet; there came wail from hospital; so I went up; as I surmised, Mrs. De Wet “gone home”; and shall I soon forget that little band of women in black returning to their tents while the pale sad moon cast its shadows of sympathy!

“Ach, minheer, het ik nie gezondigd dat ik nie wou zien en geloof dat zij gaat sterve?” (O, sir, did I not sin, in that I would not see and believe that she would die?)

“Neen.  Dank God liever voor die Liefde in u die u verblind heeft.  Dank God dat gij hebt liefgehad” (No.  Thank God rather for the Love within which blinded your eyes.  Thank God that you have loved).

Another solving the great problem of the Unknown!

* * * * *

Monday, September 30.—­End of month; cannot help remembering that this was our finest, loveliest month in the Boland (Western Province); and here we have been grovelling in the dust.

Another frightful day of wind and dust; two evils; open the tent to ventilate, and anon everything covered with layer fine dust; close tent and one gets suffocated.  And one’s clothes!  Let me rather change topic.

After burdens of yesterday felt more inclined for good quiet rest, but tent too unbearably hot; so decided to do the hospital; there knew I would find things cool.

First to men’s ward; then through three women’s wards, and finally to convalescent ward; nice and cool in wards, but grew horribly tired.  What with a word of cheer all round and a straight talk to boot, and after a Psalm, short address, and finally (and hardest of all) a prayer—­great weariness becomes master, and one feels regularly “pap.”

Hospital grown so large lately; takes few hours to “do” it thoroughly.

Best of all, one has assurance and conviction such visits are indeed source of comfort and blessing; mindful now of that sick mother in No. 3; so despondent, and how she thanked me after visit; “Ik voel nou weer blij in mij hart” (I feel glad at heart again).  Psalm 115; “Vertrouw op den Heere; Hij is mijn hulp en mijn schild” (Trust in the Lord; He is our help and our shield); “De Heere is onzer gedachtig geweest” (The Lord has been mindful of us); beautiful.