The old grandmother was very
angry. She told me that, though I was making a fine blaze now, it was
nothing compared to the flames that I myself should be consumed in
hereafter. Most of them, however, were too miserable to curse. The women
cried and the children stood by holding on to them and looking with
large frightened eyes at the burning house. They won't forget that
sight, I'll bet a sovereign, not even when they grow up. We rode away
and left them, a forlorn little group, standing among their household
goods--beds, furniture, and gimcracks strewn about the veldt; the
crackling of the fire in their ears, and smoke and flame streaming
overhead. The worst moment is when you first come to the house. The
people thought we had called for refreshments, and one of the women went
to get milk. Then we had to tell them that we had come to burn the place
down. I simply didn't know which way to look. One of the women's
husbands had been killed at Magersfontein. There were others, men and
boys, away fighting; whether dead or alive they did not know.
I give you this as a sample of what is going on pretty generally. Our
troops are everywhere at work burning and laying waste, and enormous
reserves of famine and misery are being laid up for these countries in
the future.
How far do you mean to go in this? Are you going to burn down every
house, and turn the whole country into a desert? I don't think it can be
done.
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