FROM A WELLINGTON WINDOW

Otago Witness, Issue 2430, 10 October 1900, Page 66

FROM A WELLINGTON WINDOW

"Peace," was whispered, softly spoken, For the Golden Bowl was broken, And the Silver Cord undone;

His fie peace and his the gleuy, Onii the unexampled story —

BaHles o'er a<id vlctoiy won

Dear Dot, — The following impj o&sive exhaet from part 2 of CasscU'a Illustrated Hi-toiy of the Boei war, needs no comment torn me, and is repeated as p tubute to the memoiy of linn who was faithiul to duty, and vJ.iooe dying v.o.t's wcie, "Good-bye, men. Do not blame me [or tiiiq" : —

' So they Ipiti m hr, giave A-'diew Wauc'no^e, biave&t of the biave, the s>eneml whom all Scotsmen would iollow, the man vhom all ScoL&mpii loved. lie cams oi a chivalrous mcc, nor in life nor death did he pio\e unwoithy. Tho pipes skilled out their lament, like the wailing of a host of wiaiths. The chaplain consigned the bcJy to iho ua^l. me blown earth covered that fpco ro veil beloved. A gieat, stiong Highlander stood, his ej c dyed and glazed, his stem visage vorkin D ,. Then broke forth a so deep, so hcaitre^.dirg. that o.ie knew he had lost a liiond closer than a biot'nci.

"The stern Scotsmen turned fiom that graVeside, the tattered, &haUeird lPmnant of the magnificent soldiery that t.auchope had led to battle. And they swor? by clan aud kilt and

country, by the honour of the regiment and the memory of the dead, that so should the Lord do to them, and more also, if they wrote not 'Andrew Y/auchope' with the point of the bayonet in the heart's blood oi~"the Boer sharpshooters. Henceforth the Highlanders fought for vengeance.

"And the pipes played 'The Flowers of the Forest.' "

What is Dot like? Like a tiny glint of light piercing through the dusty gloom, Comes her little laughing face through the shadows of my room. With a canopy of black tresses that fall in long silken curtains on either side of a broad, low blow, two great, shadowy eyes, as dark and soft as night upon the sea, two delicate black brows that hong above those silent wells of love like twin rainbows over mountain lakes ; a fair, straight nose that holds apart two cheeks of dusky red/' and bars the thiob'bmg passions in them from flowing into one lcsistlees storm, and two arched crimson lips. With Claude Melnotte, I ask, dost then like the picture?

I have no news, except that Doreen does not wear the hat with the badge no« ; that I have had a photo of her 111 Highland costume given to me since I wrote last; that Dicky Donovan has, I believe, returned to Featherston, and that Maidey will pass through Wellington next November on her way to Chuptclmrch, where she hopes to meet Ziska. With love to all,— Yours truly,

[How could I help liking the pictiue, Shan, and my only legist is that it ctnnot be reproduced m the next sroujp of little folk that wp aie getting together. You; nuws is all of interest. 1 hope Maidey succeeds in meeting Zisl-a, for I am ■sine we shrill hear of something plLasii.it as a result. Po get iJoieen fo c end one ol h^i photui ior the next groun.--DOT.]