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

AT TWENTY.
DON'T let any one talk to me of the gay
life of students and
artists ;
for officers who have just been promoted and are passing
through the first few months of regiment life are really the
jolly good-fellows after A all. young man of twenty can not
be placed in a position more favorable to gaiety and escapades
in general. That leap from the college to liberty, from the
dagger to the sword, from the refectory to the restaurant ;
the
first delights of command, the new outfit, the ordinance, the
new friends, the benign superiors, ... in way of experiment,
and that vague idea of dying some fine day in the midst
which leaves
of a grain field, struck in the forehead by a ball
us not even the time to cry : Non
dolet ! are things which keep
us in a state of continuous intoxication, like newly-married
people. This kind of officer's honeymoon lasts only a short
time, perhaps less than the other one but it is
; quite as delightful.
How many colonels covered with crosses and laden
with money would give their standing in the "Annual" to live
over again the twelve months of that enchanting carnival !
Oh, cloudless days and peaceful nights passed in laughing
and joking ah, continue !
As healthful as roaches, strong as oxen, thoughtless as
madmen,
audacious as adventurers, always in mischief, always
hungry, always happy, to see us one would have thought that
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