due to leave Waterloo. Discipline was somewhat relaxed
during the journey, and when at length Tom entered the train at
Waterloo he noticed that many of the men were the worse for drink.

"What blithering fools they are!" said Penrose to him, as seated in
their carriage they saw many of their companions staggering along the
platform. Tom was silent at this, nevertheless he thought a great deal.

It was now the beginning of May, and the Surrey meadows were bedecked
with glory. Tom, who had never been out of Lancashire before, could
not help being impressed with the beauty he saw everywhere. It was
altogether different from the hard bare hills which he had been
accustomed to in the manufacturing districts of Lancashire. The air
was sweet and pure too. Here all nature seemed generous with her
gifts; great trees abounded, flowers grew everywhere, while fields were
covered with such a glory of green as he had never seen before. By and
by the train stopped at a little station, and then commenced the march
to the camp for which they were bound. Penrose and Tom walked side by
side.

"This is not new to you, I suppose?" Tom queried.

"No," said Penrose, "I know almost every inch round here."

"I saw you looking out of the train at a place we passed what they call
Godalming; you were looking at a big building on the top of a hill
there. What was it?"

"It was my old school," said Penrose, "Charterhouse; the best school in
the world."

"Ay, did you go there?" asked Tom. "Why, it was fair grand. How long
were you there?"

"Five years," said Penrose.

"And to think of your becoming a Tommy like me!" Tom almost gasped.

"Well, what of that?"

"You might have been an officer if you had liked, I suppose?"

Penrose nodded.

"It wur just grand of you."

"Nothing grand at all," said Penrose. "A chap who doesn't do his bit
at a time like this is just a skunk, that's all; and I made up my mind
that I would learn what a private soldier's life was like before I took
a commission."

"Well, you know now," said Tom, "and you will be an officer soon, I
expect."

"My uniform's ordered," said Penrose.

Tom was silent for some time.

"I suppose you won't be friends with me any more, and I shall have to
salute you," he remarked presently.

"Discipline is discipline," replied Penrose. "As to friendship, I am
not given to change."

The battalion, eleven hundred strong, climbed a steep hill, under great
overshado