Old Buffer

January 17, 1898

My Dear Raymond & Joe

I couldn't stir out of the house to night until after nine oclock on account of the heavy rain. When I did make a dash for the club, during a lull, it was almost a case of swimming. You know, how broad, & deep, and swift, are the rivers that rage through Kimberley streets during, and after a heavy rain storm! I received your letters of Dec. 24th from South sea. I hope you enjoyed yourselves there, and took your sister for some nice bicycle rides, and looked after Mother well also. When you got to London - dirty beastly London - I hope you enjoyed Barnum's great show & the Babes in the Wood, at Drury Lane.

I got quite a start to night when I sat down to write, & saw by the date at the head of my letters that it was my birthday. "Many happy returns of the day "old buffer" I said as I shook hands with myself. what an old buffer i am getting! Thank you dear Raymond & Joe for the beautiful table cloth you sent me for Christmas. It is a splendid one, & you could not have sent anything I would have liked more.

The silk handkerchiefs you are sending for my birthday, will come in splendidly, as Joe says, to keep the "sweat"(!) from my collar when i take siesta. Sweat! I wonder is anything left of me. The weather is awful. It has been more oppressive than ever since the rains. Night and day, we live in a perpetual state of damp, wet through from swe___! I mean perspiration. It is positively awful in church on Sundays. You can feel the large drops rolling down you back bone, & down your chest, pouring down your neck, & face - collar wet and limp - shirt & vest sopping wet, & pocket handkerchief wet & clammyfrom constant mopping of the face & hands. Instead of getting thin, I am getting fat on it. All the weight I lost during November, I have pulled back, and am as plump and hearty as ever. I am glad you passed so well in chemistry & the other things Joe. Raymonds report must also be good, as he says Mother seems pleased with it.
You will be back at school when you get this, and I hope you will fling yourselves into your work with greater spirit than ever. God bless you my dear boys. Remember me to Sir Edmund Currie and to Mr Milne. I hope you had a happy time at Christmas.

Your loving father
Frank Mandy