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

A MEDAL. 257
Such was the Abruzzi soldier who looked so sullenly at his
captain.
The first
day he joined the regiment with the other conscripts,
still wearing their peasant and working dress, the captain had
looked at him with an expression of curiosity, had said in the
" "
ear of the lieutenant :
Look, what a forbidding countenance !
and then smiled. The soldier had noticed the smile. Upon
being taken to the store-house, he had put on the first coat that
was given him, and the captain, on seeing him, in passing, so
bundled up, with a pair of
sleeves which came down below his
hands, and with great folds that covered his knee, began to
laugh, and said : " You look like a rag-bag ! "
His face grew
.clouded, and he gave a sharp glance at the captain. Another
time, on the parade ground, when the conscripts were being
taught their steps, and were called out from the ranks one by
one, and made to walk some distance to the sound of a drum,
moving their legs slowly and stiffly like marionnettes, he was so
embarrassed when his turn came that he could not take two
steps without tottering, stumbling, or making such grotesque
and laborious motions that all his comrades were obliged to
laugh. His captain arrived at this point and scolded him, so
that he became worse than ever.
Then the captain, seeing that
it was time quite lost, went off, saying: "You are the worst
soldier in the company."
Near by were some girls with children, who were looking on,
and they began to laugh loudly. He blushed to the roots of
his hair, and returned to his place, grinding his teeth like a mad
dog.
So he became thoroughly convinced that the captain disliked
him, reproved him only from a spirit of
malice, and ridi-