Military life in Italy : sketches - Societa italiana di storia militare

THE CONSCRIPT. 1
19
you must change your way of speaking ;
few words, but frank,
loud, and sonorous, with any one who addresses you yes and
no, and no and yes and if
you have nothing else to say, so
much the better. When you are in the ranks it is exactly as
if
you were in church, be silent ;
when the ranks are broken,
you are at home, and if the others joke, you must do so too,
and not merely stand and look on, because this makes you sad ;
dash right into whatever is
going on. Then you must like
your comrades, for you will find warm friends among them, I
assure you ;
you will find young fellows who will love you like
a brother. You will see ;
there may be a great lack of everything,
but of heart never. . . . Have you a pipe ? "
" No, sir."
" If so, you could smoke. And when a superior scolds
if he is right, listen and take heed ;
if he is
wrong, listen just
the same, and don't take it to heart, because in this world we
all have our defects, and may all do wrong ;
we make a mistake
in scolding sometimes ;
but always
if we disobey. And
you must not think that all the officers who scold have bad
hearts, are angry with you, and wish to harm you. There is
nothing more untrue. These rough people have better hearts
than the others, and like you, and if
they were taken away
from you, you would all die of melancholy in fifteen days.
They shout, scold ;
it is a habit, an affair of the lungs ;
nothing
more, believe me. You will end by liking them better
than the others. You will see, when you go away they will
weep. I have seen so many. I saw them at Custoza . . ."
" That battle that went so badly ? "
" Yes ;
I saw a captain who was the terror of his company,
and no one could bear him, but they were all
wrong ;
not one