"Yes, Sir," said Sergeant Wally, accepting one of my cigarettes and
readjusting his wounded leg,--"yes, Sir, discipline's the thing.
It's only when a man moves on the word o' command, without waiting to
think, that he becomes a really reliable soldier. I remember, when
I was a recruit, how they put us through it. I'd been on the square
about a week. I was a fairly smart youngster, and I thought I was
jumping to it just like an old soldier, when the drill sergeant called
me out of the ranks. Look 'ere,' he said, 'if you think you're going
to make a fool o' me, standing about there till you choose to obey
the word o' command, you've made a big mistake.' I could 'a' cried at
the time, but I've been glad often enough since for what the sergeant
said that day. I've found that little bit of gag useful myself many a
time."
I was meditating with sympathy upon the many victims of Sergeant
Wally's borrowed sarcasm when he spoke again.
"When I first came up to London from the depôt," he said, "I'd a
brother, a corporal in the same battalion. You know as well as I do,
Sir, that as a matter o' discipline a corporal doesn't have any truck
with a private soldier, excepting in the way of duties, and my brother
didn't speak to me for the first week. Then one day he called me up
and said, 'It ain't the thing for me to be going about with you, but
as you're my brother I'll go out with you to-night. Have yourself
cleaned by six o'clock.'
"Well, I took all the money I'd got--about twelve bob--and off we
went.
"We had a bit o' supper first at a place my brother knew of, and a
very good supper it was. My brother ordered it, but I paid. Then we
got a couple of cigars--at least, I did. Then we went to a music-hall,
me paying, of course. We had a drink during the evening, and when we
came out my brother said, 'We'd better come in here and have a snack.'
"'Well, I ain't got any money left,' I sez. My brother looked at me
a minute, and then he said, 'I don't know what I've been thinking of,
going about with you, you a private and me a corporal. Be off 'ome !'
And he stalks away.
"Yes, Sir, discipline's the thing. Thank you, I'll have another
cigarette."
* * * * *