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

THE DISABLED SOLDIER. 253
"
Keep up your courage/' he began, turning to his friend,
who seemed sad and disheartened; "keep up your courage,
comrade. Don't allow yourself to get melancholy. I
know that seeing me in this state just as you are starting,
after taking leave of your family, now that you are going to be
a soldier in time of war, is very painful. Don't you think you
understand it, poor fellow A ? fine result you will say, from
such a profession
!
But, heavens ! what good does it do to
get disheartened ? You have to serve as soldier whether you
are willing or not. Well, then,
it is much better to take the
matter quietly and leave willingly. You will understand that
too. And then, then I will tell
you frankly, that if I was destined
to have such a misfortune as this, either from falling off
a cart, or down the stairs here, or have it happen
as it has
there, I prefer the latter. It is natural. I do not mean to say
that I am content in my present condition ; but, in the end,
we have not got to stay in
this world long, and when there are
those who are fond of us, that "s all we care for ;
what does
the rest matter ? Do you suppose my mother, father, and any
one else think the less of me ? "
And he raised his eyes to them. The old parents, clasping
" "
their hands, exclaimed : Oh, Carlo ! The girl gave him
a long look of inexpressible tenderness.
" More than ever," he went on, his tone and face suddenly
becoming quite animated. "And after this misfortune all loved
me more than ever. If you had been at the hospital with me,
you would have seen things which are hardly to be credited,
my dear fellow. After I had been there about twenty days,
my regiment passed through the city ;
all the officers of my
company came to see me, and some others too, do you under-