(d) "Over the top." That is the end of it all. All the drill, all the discipline, all the training, all the marching, all the weapons; even all the rest times are to issue in the final charge.
The war is not for fun. It is desperately in earnest. It is meant to attack the enemy and wrest victory from him.
We all have sometime or other to come out into the open; out of the dugouts and trenches into the front firing line, and then over no man's land into the lines of the enemy.
Girls and boys, your battle is ahead of you. Now is the time to get ready. You are in the training camp. Home and school, and even street, are part of it. Would you not like to be ready for it all? Do you not think the end is worth all the toil?
Enrol to-day; listen to the orders; undergo the hard toil; be a good soldier; take the oath and live for it!
Many years ago every youth in ancient Athens, as soon as he was old enough, took a great oath. Here it is:
"I will not dishonour my sacred arms. I will not desert my fellow-soldier, by whose side I may be set. I will leave my country greater and not less than when she is committed to me. I will reverently obey the laws which have been established, and in time to come, shall be established by the judges. I will not forsake the temples where my fathers worshipped. Of these things the gods are my witnesses."
That is a fine oath for such early times, and filled with the modern Christian spirit. If you will take it, it will make of you a good soldier.
XXV
THE SOLDIER'S OUTFIT—SHOES