regarded with a genuine affection.

I found the men, in the main, very good fellows indeed. Of course there
were all sorts among them. Many were well bred and well educated, and
one or two might have been met without surprise in almost any society.
Some, again, were thorough-going blackguards, and others, who were
among the most popular and the best soldiers, were incurably rackety and
undisciplined. One man, who had thrice won his stripes as full corporal,
was for the third time broken and reduced to the ranks during my first
month of service. He would keep away from drink for two or three years
at a time, and then in a night would undo all the results of hard work
and self-denial. Take the men in the main, and it would be difficult to
find a better lot; but the petty officers seemed to make it the business
of their lives to put the heaviest of burdens on the shoulders of any
promising recruit. They were none of them very well educated, and I
suppose that it was only natural that they should fear the advancement
of a youngster better tutored than themselves, and should do their best
to keep him down. One only found this disposition amongst the younger
non-coms.--men who had not held their places long enough to grow used to
the dignity of rank.

There is, or was in my time, a soldiers' proverb, 'As nasty as a
new-made corporal,' With one exception the sergeant-majors were good
fellows and popular with their men. I shall not give the name of the
exception, for he may be still alive; but he was commonly known as 'The
Pig,' and he deserved his title. There was no meanness and no denial
of military etiquette of which he would not be guilty to get a man into
trouble. One badgered private assaulted him violently with a pitchfork,
and suffered two years' imprisonment for that misdemeanour. 'The Pig'
was quite uncured by this experience; and one night, prowling round the
barrack-rooms after 'lights out' to see if he could find an after-dark
smoker, he was assailed with a tremendous shower of highlows from every
quarter of the room. The cavalry highlow, well aimed and low, as Count
Billy Considine said about the decanter, may be made a very effective
missile, and its powers of offence are not diminished by the fact that
it pretty often carries a spur in the heel of it This event was spoken
of with bated breath about the regiment for a day or two, but nothing
came of it 'The Pig' was by no means sure of his popularity with his