d reliables' "Echelon to the
right" and that maximum of military perfection the "March Past."

In rural corps, however, the season consists of fourteen actual days
spent in the broiling sun in camp. Lucky indeed is the company commander
who can bring a full company every year to camp, for many who come one
year come not again, and such are the conditions that no man sayeth him
nay lest recruiting be stopped altogether in that district. One sighs
for the press gang of Merrie England and subscribes for such incendiary
journals as those of the various National Service Leagues, for one has a
limited area to secure the recruits from, and must recruit at least 60
per cent. each year at a season when farm labour is at a premium.

Having secured your recruits, you must assemble them at some central
point where you have a large quantity of arms and equipment stored,
generally at your own expense--though "Sam" Hughes is remedying
this--and issue these, stave off complaints that the fit is not exactly
up to West End standards, and, if you are an old "stager," give them an
hour or two of drill while enthusiasm is at its maximum.

Then on the required date you marshal your little force at the railway
station, shepherd them into the cars, and detrain them a few hours
later, under even more trying circumstances, a few miles from camp.
Then, with a mixture of patience, perspiration, and profanity, you
finally march into your line of tents. Here you are met with great glee
by the colonel and the adjutant, who inquire blithely as to how many men
you have; this may seem useless, but as the men are strung out for at
least half a mile along the route it is reassuring to learn how many
there should be in the little procession.

We will take it that the colonel is pleased with your reply, in which
case he will tell you that his white horse has arrived, so if you will
drop around ... prohibition rules in our training camps, but a good O.C.
has always something under the mat.

What follows in the remaining days of the fortnight must be endured to
be appreciated. At the end of that time the shepherding begins again,
and for the next month the company commander scours his district, this
time locating uniforms which in defiance of his last orders, and
prayers, have not been turned in. Very often the man has gone West and
the uniform as well. So remote are the chances of seeing either again
that the expression "Gone West" has almost the same me