er's life is not tinsel and parade, but is made up of infinite
hardship. The weak boy must indeed have to have a strong will in order
to pull through.

Frederick Roberts was born in India at a time when his father, Abraham
Roberts, was lieutenant colonel of infantry at Cawnpore. This fine old
soldier gave a life-time of service to the crown, and was active in the
border raids in India. His son lived to complete the task which he
began, of helping to open India to the civilized world. For his
services, Abraham Roberts became a general and was knighted. The son,
who was destined to win still higher honors, began his career, September
30, 1832.

Although the boy was born amid the smell of gunpowder, he must have been
a disappointment to his soldier father. He was puny and sickly, and for
a time it did not seem likely that he would live at all. So when he was
only a few months old, he was taken from the uncongenial air of India and
brought by his parents to England. Here he spent his boyhood, away from
the father and mother who were forced by official duties to return to the
East.

His home was a charming country house at Clifton near Bristol, where for
the first years he had private tutors. One interesting experience was in
a small school at Carrickmacross in Ireland; then, at eleven, he attended
public school at Hampton. But almost nothing is set down in detail as to
these early years, which would show that besides being a weakling, he was
in no sense remarkable. He was merely another of those small, backward
urchins that one may see at any recess, on any public school playground.

Still his father was set upon his receiving a military education. "It
will do no harm, anyway, and may straighten his shoulders a bit," he
doubtless said. And so at thirteen, young Roberts was entered at Eton,
that training ground of so many of England's soldiers. He made his first
mark in this famous school by winning a prize in mathematics. The
obscure lad was beginning to assert himself.

To the end of his days, Roberts held a warm regard for Eton. Once when
at the end of a great campaign, he was presented with a sword of honor,
on this boyhood's drill ground, he said to a younger generation then
assembled: "To you boys who intend to enter the army, the studies and
sports of this place are your best training. England's greatest general,
himself an Etonian, is reported to have said that the battle of Waterloo
was won in