Identifier: besiegedbyboersd01ashe (find matches)
Title: Besieged by the Boers; a diary of life and events in Kimberley during the siege
Year: 1900 (1900s)
Authors: Ashe, E. Oliver, (Evelyn Oliver)
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, Doubleday, Page & Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: The Library of Congress

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much dinner or you would stickfast, it was such a close fit. This did not mat-ter much on siege fare, however, for we werein little danger of over-eating. When this work was done I still needed alot of sacks to make the place secure, so I wentdown to Dr. Stoneys brother and got somefrom him. He had promised me a few, but Ifound he could let m.e have a lot—far morethan the boy I took with me could carry—so1 borrowed his Scotch cart and two horses, andwe tumbled the sacks in. Of course 1 rodehome on top of the pile, much to the amuse-ment of Dr. Stoney and his brother, who stoodon their veranda and jeered at me. The for-mers only regret was that his camera was outof gear, for he declared that the sight of Kim-berleys boss doctor sitting on a pile of sacksin a Scotch cart, clad in dirty flannels and a bigBoer hat, with a little Hottentot as driver anda raw Kaffir in a red shirt as footman was toogood to be lost. One of my best patients cutme dead on the way up because he did not rec-
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THE RUSH FOR SHELTER 145 ognise me, but nobody worried much aboutclothes at that time. With the fresh lot of sacks the boys finishedup the fort in style. I had been in too manystuffy forts that week to neglect ventilation inmy own, so I built in a strong iron grating op-posite the entrance, in a place where it waspractically impossible for any bit of shell tocome, and it answered splendidly. There wasa nice current of air through all the time.When the miner took his boys away he said, Idont know anything about shells, but if thewhole house falls on that fort it wont hurt it. That was my view, too; so long as the biggun kept in the same place we were absolutelysafe, but if they started others in different quar-ters we might not feel so happy. The fortwas seven feet square and seven high, so mysix foot three had heaps of room in every direc-tion. Agnes pinned sheets and big bath towelsall round the walls inside, brought our beddingand mattresses down into it, with a looking-glass, a clo

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