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

THE CAMP. 231
the clothes ;
boots on top of shirts, combs in the pockets,
no matter, only be quick
! The boxes will not shut ;
down
with the knees on the cover ;
more force, more still,
oh ! it 's
closed. Quick ! roll up the overcoat ;
here with the jacket,
sword, sack ;
we are in order at least. And the soldiers
around the tents, loosening the knots in the cords with their
.
nails, rolling up covers and linen, filling the knapsacks hastily,
buttoning on their gaiters with the confounded cramped fingers
which cannot find the button-holes, feeling in the straw for
the bowl, tassel, bayonet, with red face, dripping brow, labored
breatfl, and in a perfect fever lest the second blast of the
trumpet should sound, with the voice of the sergeant at their
backs threatening them with imprisonment if late, with the
scarecrow before them of the captain who is
stamping his
feet, shouting and screaming : " Quick
!
quick ! quick ! "
Another blast of the trumpet. " Form the ranks !
" shout a
hundred excited voices. All rush forward just as they are,
with their fatigue caps on the back of their heads, their coats
unbuttoned, belts in hand, their knapsacks hanging over one
shoulder.
" To your place, quickly ;
order right about."
The companies form tumultuously, breaking open at the appearance
of every fresh advent of soldiers, then close in,
sway backward and forward, undulate from the head to the foot,
get out of order, and then form again rapidly. Another blast
of the trumpet. The regiment starts. The first
company is
outside the camp, the second the third the camp is empty.
Such is
camp life ;
sometimes hard and distasteful, but always
beautiful and beloved. Who is there who, having tried
it,
does not love it, and does not recall it with pleasure, and
desire it with enthusiasm ?