for anybody to make a
long march in India without getting out of temper. It's my belief that
the grit does it, for you do have that terribly; and what with the heat,
the dust, the thirst, the government boots, that always seem as if made
not to fit anybody, and the grit, I believe even a regiment all
chaplains would forget their trade.

Tramp, tramp, tramp, day after day, and nearly always over wide, dreary,
dusty plains. Now we'd pass a few muddy paddy-fields, or come upon a
river, but not often; and I many a time used to laugh grimly to myself,
as I thought what a very different place hot, dusty, dreary India was,
to the glorious country I used to picture, all beautiful trees and
flowers, and birds with dazzling plumage. There are bright places
there, no doubt, but I never came across one, and my recollections of
India are none of the most cheery.

But at last came the day when we were crossing a great wide-spread
plain, in the middle of which seemed to be a few houses, with something
bright here and there shining in the sun; and as we marched on, the
cluster of houses appeared to grow and grow, till we halted at last in a
market square of a good-sized town; and that night we were once more in
barracks. But, for my part, I was more gritty than ever; for now we did
not see the colonel's lady or her sister, though I may as well own that
there was some one with them that I wanted to see more than either.

They were all, of course, at the colonel's quarters, a fine old palace
of a place, with a court-yard, and a tank in the centre, and trees, and
a flat roof, by the side of the great square; while on one side was
another great rambling place, separated by a narrowish sort of alley,
used for stores and hospital purposes; and on the other side, still
going along by the side of the great market square, was another
building, the very fellow to the colonel's quarters, but separated by a
narrow footway, some ten feet wide, and this place was occupied by the
officers.

Our barracks took up another side of the square; and on the others were
mosques and flat-roofed buildings, and a sort of bazaar; while all round
stretched away, in narrow streets, the houses of what we men used to
call the niggers. Though, speaking for myself, I used to find them,
when well treated, a nice, clean, gentle sort of people. I used to look
upon them as a big sort of children; in their white muslin and calico,
and their simple ways of playing-