Bloemfontein

S.A.

April 12th 1900

Maggie

Dear sister I received your jolly little note glad to hear of you getting along so well with the School & kids is cousin Willie & Maggie there yet I dont expect we will be home before October as I hear that no troops leave S.A. before September but that no one can tell we will one of the first Regts to leave and that as soon as the war is over and it cannot last much longer I think that one more good fight all round would settle everything and that will be in the next two months I think that the heavy scrapping will be over by then and if I go through the balance as well as I did the first will be quite satisfied we have every accommodation that you can want .Y.M.C.A. tent to write in on a good table seats prayer Meetings in the evenings anything you want to buy but have to pay a fancy price for anything a can of condenced cost one & six can of jam[?] bob can of sausages [?] can three bob six Duck eggs one 10 bob A bob [?] shilling you ought to see the rush when there is something for sale you [?] they had never seen [?] thing to eat for twenty hours we had quite a storm last night but were sleeping in our [?] so fooled it we are comfortable as can be expected I am feeling good [?] a little tender on [?] but all right now this paper & patd. envelope is a present from Gen. Sir Henry Colville our divisional commander so you can say you have a Curio, how is Bert tell Nellie I am going to write to her next I have written so many that my fingers are stiff got a letter from steve and one of Henrys drawings going to carry it with one of my collections & I have quite a few tell Mother I have news seen a times I think it is on account of them putting no stamps on them and they are stopped no more news good bye

Love to all Noble