ORDERED TO THE THIRTY-FOURTH
TWELVE working days with arms, and Privates Overton and Terry were moved on into A Company.
They were now deeper than ever in the work of learning the soldier's trade.
A tremendous change had been worked in them. Though their faces were as youthful as ever, the boys seemed to have grown into the dignity of men—of trained men, at that.
They carried themselves like soldiers, thought of themselves as soldiers, and were soldiers. For they loved their work better than ever.
"We need only to get to our regiment now, to be wholly happy," Noll declared to his chum. "Oh, why can't more young fellows, droning their lives out in offices, or tending senseless machines in shops, understand the joy of this free, manly life?"
Of course, not all rookies at the post had conceived as large an idea of Army life.
Two, who had joined at about the same time as Overton and Terry, had not proved themselves wholly suited to a life of discipline. This pair had committed several breaches of the rules, and had at last been haled before courts-martial and dismissed the service.
Only the young man who has in him the makings of a man and a soldier finds the life of the Army attractive. The incompetent, the shiftless and the vicious are no better off in the Army than they would be anywhere else. In fact they are out of their element.
Shrimp, the sullen, had gone, too, at last. The order had been published that sent him to undergo a year's imprisonment for having attempted to desert.