Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-10-03
HIS PRIVATE HONOR.
WRITTEN FOR THE EVENING STAR BIZ
RUDYARD KrPLIHa.
copyrighted. 1691.l
CHAPTER I.


draft that had ever come from the depot Null
vaney looked them over, grunted scornfully
and Immediately reported himself very sick.
lis it the regular autumn fever?' said the
doctor. who knew something Of Terence's ways
''Your temperatures normal"
"'Tis a hundred and thirty-seven rockies to
the bad, soor. I'm not very sick now, but I
will be dead if these boys are thrown at me in
my reduced condition. Doctor, dear, supposin'
you was in charge of three cholera camps"
go to the hospital then, you old contriver, :"
said the doctor laughing.
Terence bundled himself into q blue bed
gown-Dinah Shadd was attending to MAJOR
lady, who preferred Dinah without a diploma
to any body else with hundred-puta pipe in
his teeth and paraded the hospital balcony ex-
horting Ortheris to be q father to the new re-
cruits.
They're mostly your own sort little man."
he said with grin. 1.-The top-spit Of White
chapel. IL interogue them when they're more
Ike something they never will be, an that's q
good honest soldier like me-"
Ortheris yapped Indignantly. He knew as
well as Terence what the coming work meant,
and he thought Terence's conduct mean. Then
he strolled off to look at the new cattle, who
were staring at the unfamiliar landscape with
large eyes and asking if the kites we're eagles
uuu tne parln uOSs gack6ls.
well, you are holy set OF bean-faced beg
gars, you are he said genially to a knot in the
barrack square. Then running his eye over
them, "Fried fish an whelks is about your
sort. Blimy if they haven't sent some pink
eyed Jews, too. You chap with the greasy bed,
which o the SolomOns was your father
Moses?'
my names Anderson" said a voice sullenly.
ooh, Samuelson' all right Samuelson an
how many o the likes O you sheenies are
comm to spoil compny?"
There is no scorn 80 complete as that of the
old soldier for the new. 1t is right that this
should be SO. A recruit must learn first that
he Is not q man, but thing which in time and
the mercy OF heaven may develop into o SOL
dier of the queen if it takes care and attends to
good advice. Ortheris' tunic was open. his
cap Topped over one eye, and his hands we're
behind his back, as he walked round growing
more contemptuous at each step. The re-
cruits did not dare to answer, for they were new
boys in a strange school, who had called them
selves soldiers at the depot in comfortable
England.
Not single pair o. shoulders in the whole
lot! I've seen some bad drafts; but this ere
draft beats any draft I've ever known. Jock,
come an look at these squidgy, ham-shanked
beggars."
Learoyd was walking across the square. He
arrived slowly circled round the knot as
whale circles round a shoal Of small fry, said
nothing and went away whistling.
Eyes, you may well look sleepy. Ortheris
squeaked to the boys. Its the likes O. you
breaks the carts Of the likes of US. We've got
to lick you into shape, and never a ha' penny
extry do we get for SO doin and you amt never
grateful, neither. Don't you so thinkin' it's
the colonel nor yet the company OFFICER that
makes you. It's me, you Johnny Raws-you
Johnny bloomin' Rawsn'
A company officer had come up unperceived
behind Ortheris at the end of this Grafton.
You may be right, Ortheris, he said, quietly,
"but shouldn't shout it.
The recruits grinned as Ortheris saluted and
collapsed.
Some days afterward was privileged to look
over the new batch, and they were everything
that Ortheris had said and more. b company
had been devasted by forty or fifty of them and b
company drill or parade was sight to shudder
at. Ortheris asked them lovingly whether they
had not been sent out by mistake and whether
they had not better post themselves back to
their friends. Learoyd thrashed them me-
thodically one by one one, without haste, but
without slovenliness; and the older soldiers
took the remnants from Learoyd and went
over them in their own fashion.
Mulvaney stayed in hospital and grinned
from the balcony when Ortheris called him a
shlrker and other worse names.
by the grace av God we'll brew men av
them yet," Terence said one day. "Be var
tuous an parsevere, me son. There's the
makins av colonies in that mob, il we only 60
deep onOugn-wlQ Delt.
Wei Ortheris replied. dancing with rage.
81 Just like you and your we's. 'Ere's com
pany drillln' like drunk militia reg 'ment-'
$50 I've been officially acquent," was the
answer from on high, but I'm too sick this
tide to make Ger tain"
shirkin' up there among the arrerroot an the
sago."
AN the port wine. You've forgot the port
wine. Orth'ris. It's none SO bad" Terence
smacked his lips provokingly.
And we're wore off our feet with these ere
kangarOos. Come out o. that an earn your
pay. Come on down outer that an do some
thin stead o GRIMM up there like Jew
monkey, you frOwsy-'eaded Fenian"
when m better av my various complaints
I'll have little private talkin wild you. In the
meanwhile-duck
Terence flung an empty medicine bottle at
Ortheris' head and dropped into long chair.
and Ortheris came to tell me his opinion Of
Mulvaney three times over-each time entirely
varying all the words.
'There'n be smash one O. these days." he
concluded. well. it's none o. nv fault but
it's ard ON B company"
1t was very hard on d company, for twenty
seasoned men cannot push twice that number
OF fools into their places and keep their own
places at the same time. The recruits should
nave been more evenly distributed through the
regiment but it seemed good to the colonel to
mass them IN company where there was
large proportion of old soldiers He found his
reward early one morning when the battalion
was advancing by companies in echelon from
the right. The order was given to form conf
pany squares, which are compact little bricks
OF men, very unpleasant for line of charging
cavalry to deal with. b company was on the
left flank and had ample time to know what was
going on. For that reason, presumably, it gath
cred Itself In to thing like decayed aloe clump
the bayonets pointing anywhere in general
and nowhere in particular, and in that clump
ROUNDED or mob, it stayed till the dust had gone
down and the colonel could nee and speak. He
did both, and the speaking part was admitted
by the regiment to be the finest thing that the
''otd man. had ever risen to since one de-
lightful day at sham fight when u cavalry
division had occasion to walk over his line Of
skirmishers. He said, almost weeping that he
had given no order for rallyng groups and
that he preferred to see a little dressing among
the men occasionally. He then apologized for
having mistaken company for men. He said
that they were but little weak children, and
that since he could not offer them each per-
ambulator and q nurse maid (this may sound
comic to read, but b company heard it by
word OF mouth and winced), perhaps the best
thing for them to do would be to 60 back
to squad drill. To that end he proposed
sending them out Of their turn to
garrison duty at Fort Amara, five miles away.
(it may be observed company were next for
this detestable duty and nearly cheersd the
colonel.) There he devoutly hoped that their
own subalterns would drill them to death, al
thew M us int hair