MY VOCATION. 183 



I answered, that I never had made so good a copy before, 

 and then they ordered me back to my barracks. 



JSTow I thought I was on a fair road to become a soldier. I 

 received my arms, accoutrements and a horse, and being fully 

 equipped I had nothing more to wait for but the order to 

 march. 



Among my new comrades there was one for whom 1 

 immediately conceived an attachment ; an old soldier of the 

 brigade named Rousselet, an accomplished specimen of the 

 old trooper. I applied to him to know what I must do to get 

 immediate active service, and he told me. 



" We will never see any work here ; I propose that we 

 apply for an exchange into the squadron that they are fitting 

 up at Guelma." 



We made the application without further discussion, and 

 after having our names enregistered for three months, we 

 received the order to depart. With a joyful heart I rode out 

 of the city of Bone, and bade adieu to its harbor and gardens, 

 and the hazy peaks of its blue hills, and on the third day 

 after, from an eminence I caught sight of the checkered 

 encampment of Guelma, then a mere garrison, but which 

 since that time has grown into a beautiful little city. 



It is not generally understood that the regiment of spahis 

 is composed principally of native warriors, under the com- 

 mand of French officers and subalterns. It was for this 

 reason that I had the honor of serving as an orderly for the 

 three months that I stayed at Bone. During this time I was 

 living entirely with the French troops, and had no connection 

 whatever with our Arab comrades, and on arriving at Guelma 



