Where the road crossed the stream deep approaches had been dug into the banks in order to facilitate the passage of conveyances--a "drift" it is called in South Africa--and on either side for a distance of a mile, up and down the stream, the burghers stood by their horses and waited for the coming of the day.

The concealment was perfect; no specially constructed trenches could have served the purposes of the Boers more advantageously.
Dawn lighted the flat-topped kopjes that lay in a huge semicircle in the distance, and men clambered up the sides of the spruit to ascertain the camp of the enemy.

The white smoke-stack of the Bloemfontein waterworks appeared against the black background of the hills in the east, but it was still too dark to distinguish objects on the ground beneath it.

A group of burghers in the spruit, absent-mindedly, began to sing a deep-toned psalm, but the stern order of a commandant quickly ended their matutinal song.

A donkey in an ammunition waggon brayed vociferously, and a dozen men, fearful lest the enemy should hear the noise, sprang upon him with clubs and whips, and even attempted to close his mouth by force of hands.