recision from the Sergeant of the
Guard.

"What the name of the Devil's old Aunt is _this_ thing? What are you
on Guard for? To write hymns and scare crows--or to allow decayed
charwomen to stroll out of barracks in a dem parody of your uniform?
Look at her! Could turn round in the jacket without taking it off.
Room for both legs in one of the overalls. Cap on his beastly neck.
Gloves like a pair of ... _Get inside you_!... Take the thing in with
a pair of tongs and bury it where it won't contaminate the dung-pits.
Burn it! Shoot it! Drown it! D'ye hear?... And then I'll put you under
arrest for letting it pass...."

It had been a wondrously deflated and chapfallen Herbert that had
slunk back to the room of the reserve troop, and perhaps his
reputation as a mighty bruiser had never stood him in so good stead as
when it transpired that an Order had been promulgated that no recruit
should leave barracks during the first three months of his service,
and that the names of all such embryos should be posted in the Main
Guard for the information of the Sergeant....

Memories ...!

His first march behind the Band to Church....

The first Review and March Past....

His first introduction to bread-and-lard....

His wicked carelessness in forgetting--or attempting to disregard--the
law of the drinking-troughs. "So long as one horse has his head down
no horse is to go." There had been over a score drinking and he had
moved off while one dipsomaniac was having a last suck.

His criminal carelessness in not removing his sword and leaving it in
the Guard-room, when going on sentry after guard-mounting--"getting
the good Sergeant into trouble, too, and making it appear that _he_
had been equally criminally careless ".

The desperate quarrel between Hawker and Bone as to whether the 10th
Hussars were called the "Shiny Tenth" because of their general
material and spiritual brilliance, or the "Chainy Tenth" because their
Officers wore pouch-belts of gold chain-mail.... The similar one
between Buttle and Smith as to the reason of a brother regiment being
known as "The Virgin Mary's Body-guard," and their reluctant
acceptance of Dam's dictum that they were both wrong, it having been
earned by them in the service of a certain Maria Theresa, a lady
unknown to Messrs. Buttle and Smith.... Dam had found himself
developing into a positive bully in his determination to prevent
senseless quarrelling, senseless misconduct, senseless hum