"
"Why running water?" Chris asked. "Why not a pond?" "A pond!" Field
said, contemptuously. "Why, sir, before our section alone was washed,
the water of anything short of a lake would be solid."
There was a general burst of laughter.
"Well, Field, you do us almost as much good as a wash," Peters said.
"Anyhow, we are better off than the others. We have got our tents and
our spirit-lamp, and can have our tea with some degree of comfort, which
is more than the others will be able to do. Now, as we have not running
water, I think we might as well scrape as much of this mud off as we
can."
"I would almost rather remain as we are," Field said. "Hitherto I have
felt rather proud of our appearance. As we only got our uniforms when we
came up here, and have always had our tents to sleep in, we looked a
great deal cleaner than the average. Now we shall be conspicuous for our
dirtiness."
"In spite of what Field says, I will adopt your suggestion, Peters. We
had better help the Kaffirs to get up our tents first," Chris said,
"then we can do the scraping while they are getting our supper ready. It
is very lucky that we had the water-skins filled before starting. We
should hardly taste the tea if it had been made from water from any of
these spruits.
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