Twilight in Italy

by D. H. Lawrence

'But that would be splendid, to be firing up there, manoeuvring up in the snow.'

And he began to tell me how hard a soldier's life was, how hard the soldier was drilled.

'You don't look forward to it?' I said.

'Oh yes, I do. I want to be a soldier, I want to serve my time.'

'Why?'I said.

'For the exercise, the life, the drilling. One becomes strong.'

'Do all the Swiss want to serve their time in the army?' I asked.

'Yes—they all want to. It is good for every man, and it keeps us all together. Besides, it is only for a year. For a year it is very good. The Germans have three years—that is too long, that is bad.'

I told him how the soldiers in Bavaria hated the military service.

'Yes,' he said, 'that is true of Germans. The system is different. Ours is much better; in Switzerland a man enjoys his time as a soldier. I want to go.'