Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: III.—BATTLE IN BEING The series of pictures it Is to the eye, its near rattle and far roar to the ear, and its wearing strain upon the nerves. WHAT, to the soldier, is a battle in being ? How does it seem to him as he beholds it ? How does he feel when he is in the heart of it ? One picture comes of vision, the other through sensation, but the two are inseparable. We approach them by gradual stages. " Old man," a volunteer salutes a friend at home, " when you are comfortable in your bed, have a thought for Bill doing his lonely sentry-go, with the ground for his bed and the starry heavens for his covering, fifty rounds in his bandolier, and a Lee-Metford his close companion." Sentry-go on the veldt! It is the road to the battle, part of the training which brings Atkins to the ordeal. It has variety. A sentry reports the countersign one night to be " weary," and hints that somebody meant to be sarcastic. " Why not weary, worn and sad ? " he asks. Another sentry comes to a halt on hearing a noise in a thicket, followed by the flight of a shadow from it. He challenges, gets no reply, challenges anew, and is about to do so a third time, when the shadow appears again, and he fires. There is a squeal, and next morning a pig is wandering round the camp on three legs, carrying the fourth. " Who shot the pig ? " is the question, and our sentry has to meet the laughter of his comrades and the anger of the owner, a neighbouring farmer. A camp is roused by a false alarm and loses its night's sleep ; which is still more experience for Atkins, shaping him to his surroundings. The occasion of the alarm has been a stampede of mules, foolish beasts that way, and the cry of a dreaming man, " They are on us ! " Soon the mules are in obedience and peace, and, moreover, the dominion ...