Tot Siens

On the slope of the great granite dome of Malindizimu, the Queen found the going too heavy for her smooth-soled shoes. Princess Elizabeth promptly offered the Queen her low-heeled footgear; the Princess continued the ascent in stocking feet (Nylons, size 9 1/2).

A few days later, on Table Mountain, the Queen's hat blew off. Clad in khaki slacks and armed with an alpenstock, the Royal Family's brisk old (77) host, Jan Christian Smuts (who had walked up the mountain while royalty rode), hastily interrupted a discourse in geology to take off after it. He returned with the hat in one hand, a graceful blue feather in the other. The King, whose powers of observation are apparently not much better than the average husband's, wanted to know where Smuts had found such a lovely feather. "It's from my hat," said the Queen sweetly. As a reward for gallantry beyond the call of duty, King George VI placed the feather proudly in the hatband of his South African Prime Minister's battered panama.

It was a symbolic award. On every mile of their ten-week trip, the visitors had made friends for themselves and their Empire. Last week, they were back on board the Vanguard, steaming home to Britain. "U het ons U harte gegee" (You have given us your hearts), the Queen told their South African subjects. As the big warship moved slowly out of Table Bay into the open sea, the crowds thronged the dockside for a last glimpse. "Will ye no come back again?" they sang. At his farewell banquet the King had already given his promise. "Tot Siens," he had said in his best Afrikaans. "See you soon."

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