it 



My Orderly'' 



very bad twist in his "little Mary." He was a quaint 

 fellow, this particular orderly. He had a face which 

 was not so much annoying as it was, what I might 

 almost call radiant with stupidity. I sometimes 

 wondered what his thoughts centred round, and I 

 asked him one day what would happen to him after 

 he was dead. But his ideas did not carry him 

 further than an earthly burial, followed by complete 

 oblivion. The rest of my men proved very zealous 

 worshippers, and read their Mardi Bible incessantly ; 

 in fact, it was quite a common sight to see my 

 colour-sero-eant sitting- in the trenches and inton- 

 ing from his "Mardi," or Koran, like the parson 

 reading the prayers in church at home. I am quite 

 sure that the Puritan soldiers of the great Cromwell 

 could not have exhibited a greater zeal in this 

 direction. This holy and precious book of my 

 sergeant-major, by the way, was rather a sore point, 

 as it was nearly a porter's load, and we had orders 

 to travel as light as possible, but he managed to get 

 it through all right. The company now asked 

 permission to build a church, and to bow down four 

 times per diem, which I granted, as I desired to 

 encourage religion, since this prevented them from 

 indulging in excesses of native beer, which they 

 might otherwise be prone to do. My orderly, 

 however, informed me he was not over-given to 

 prayer, but preferred his sleep, and I never met 

 anyone to snore like him. I gave him standing 

 orders when in camp never to go to sleep within 

 two hundred yards of my tent. Well, I suppose 



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