It was not only the extremely old and the extremely young who went to war; it was a transfer of the entire population of the two Republics to the frontiers, and no condition or position was sufficient excuse to remain behind.  The professional man of Pretoria and Johannesburg was in a laager which was adjacent to a laager of farthest-back veld-farmers.  Lawyers and physicians, photographers and grocers, speculators and sextons, judges and schoolmasters, schoolboys and barkeepers—­all who were burghers locked their desks and offices and journeyed to the front.  Even clergymen closed their houses of worship in the towns and remained among the commandos to pray and preach for those who did the fighting.  The members of the Volksraads, who brought on the war by their ultimatum, were among the first in the field, and foremost in attacking the soldiers of their enemy.  Students in European universities, who hastened home when war-clouds were gathering, went shoulder to shoulder into battle with the backwoodsman, the Boer takhaar.  There was no pride among them; no class distinction which prevented a farmer from speaking to a millionaire.  A graduate of Cambridge had as his boon companion for five months a farmer who thought the earth a square, and imagined the United States to be a political division of Australia.

[Illustration:  BOERS WATCHING THE FIGHT AT DUNDEE]

The Boer who was bred in a city or town good-naturedly referred to his country cousin as a “takhaar”—­a man with grizzly beard and unkempt hair.  It was a good descriptive term, and the takhaar was not offended when it was applied to him.  The takhaar was the modern type of the old voortrekker Boer who, almost a hundred years ago, trekked north from Cape Colony, and after overcoming thousands of difficulties settled in the present Boer country.  He was a religious, big-hearted countryman of the kind who would suspect a stranger until he proved himself worthy of trust.  After that period was passed the takhaar would walk the veld in order that you might ride his horse.  If he could not speak your language he would repeat a dozen times such words as he knew, meanwhile offering to you coffee, mutton, bread, and all the best that his laager larder afforded.  He offered to exchange a pipe-load of tobacco with you, and when that occurred you could take it for granted that he was your friend for life.  The takhaar was the man who went to the frontiers on his own responsibility weeks before the ultimatum was sent, and watched day and night lest the enemy might trample a rod beyond the bounds.  He was the man who stopped Jameson, who climbed Majuba, and who fought the natives.  The takhaar was the Boer before gold brought restlessness into the country, and he was proud of his title.  The fighting ability of the takhaar is best illustrated by repeating an incident which occurred after the battle of Dundee when a large number of Hussars were captured.  One of the Hussar officers asked for the name of the