d fieldrations...."

"I should like to meet your son," I said. "I have been looking around
for some time for a reliable manager...."

"George might consider it." General Thario squinted his glass against
the light. "I'll have him stop by your hotel tomorrow."

The little radio behind the bar, which had been mumbling to itself for
hours, spoke loudly. "We interrupt this program to bring you a
newsflash: Eire has declared war on the Soviet Union. I repeat, war has
been declared on the Union of Soviet Republics by Eire. Keep tuned to
this station for further details. We return you now to our regular
program."

There was an absent pattering of applause and General Thario stood up
gravely, glass in hand. "Gallant little Eire--or, if I may be permitted
once the indulgence of using the good old name we know and love so
well--brave old Ireland. When the world was at war, despite every
provocation, she stayed peaceful. Now that the world is disgracefully
pacific--and you have all heard foreign ministers unanimously declaring
their countries neutral--so fast did they rush to the microphones that
they were still panting when they went on the air--when the whole world
was cautious, Ireland, true to her traditions, joined the just cause.
Gentlemen, I give you our fighting ally, Eire."

Departing from his usual custom, he drank the toast in one gulp, but no
one else in the room paid any attention. I considered this lack of
enthusiasm for a courageous gesture quite unworthy and meditated for a
moment on the insensitivity into which our people seemed to have sunk.

As the evening went on, the general grew more and more affable and, if
possible, less and less reticent. He had, he assured me, been the
constant victim, either of men or of circumstances. At the military
academy he had trained for the cavalry only to find himself assigned to
the tank corps. He had reconciled himself, pursued his duties with zeal,
and was shunted off to the infantry, where, swallowing chagrin, he had
led his men bravely into a crossfire from machineguns. For this he got
innumerable decorations and a transfer to the Quartermaster's
Department. His marriage to the daughter of an influential politician
should have assured peacetime promotion, but the nuptials coincided with
an election depriving the family's party of power.

Now another war had come and he was a mere brigadier pigeonholed in an
unimportant office with juniors broadly hinting at his retir