the Eton playing-fields. In thus expressing himself, the Duke
(Wellington) meant that bodily vigor, power of endurance, courage, and
rapidity of decision are produced by the manly games which are fostered
here."

Undoubtedly there was a personal touch to these remarks, as Roberts
recalled how he himself had begun to gain these sterling qualities on the
cricket field and gridiron.

When fifteen, he entered the Military College at Sandhurst, but remained
there only two terms. By nature he was a studious chap, doing especially
well in German and mathematics. So easily did he solve problems in
algebra and geometry, that his mates promptly nicknamed him "Deductions."

Leaving Sandhurst, he put in a few months at a preparatory military
school at Wimbledon, but his father's return to England, in 1849, marked
the first definite step in his plans. Colonel Roberts, after several
years away from his son, was delighted to see that the thin chest was
indeed filling out, and the shoulders throwing back.

"Do you think you can stand India, now, my lad?" he asked.

"Why not, sir?" replied the boy briefly.

"Then I think that the East India Company's service is the place for you."

Colonel Roberts himself had been connected with this great company, which
was the forerunner of the Government in India--and he was right in
thinking that its service offered many chances of advancement.

Accordingly the boy was entered in the Company's own military school, at
Addiscombe; and in less than two years had become a second lieutenant in
the Bengal Artillery--a military company maintained as part of this huge
commercial enterprise.

In 1852, in his twentieth year, he received his first marching orders.
They were to report for duty. He set sail by way of Suez, but there was
no canal in those days to make possible an all-water journey. Instead,
at Alexandria he changed to a small inland steamer going by canal and
river to Cairo. Thence a hot dusty trek across the desert was necessary,
in order to reach Suez.

Once in Calcutta, the young subaltern lost no time in proving that he was
not a mollycoddle. He began by riding every horse in the battery, or
"troop," as it was called in those days.

"Thus," he tells us, "I learned to understand the amount of nerve,
patience and skill necessary to the making of a good Horse Artillery
driver, with the additional advantage that I was brought into constant
contact with the men."

Roberts was