noise and roughness
with which the cadets rushed down the narrow staircase from their
dining-room. One of the senior cadets, a corporal, was stationed at
the head of this staircase, his arms outstretched, to prevent the usual
wild rush past. The sight of this severe little officer was too great
a temptation for Charlie Gordon. Down went his head, forward he
rushed, and the corporal was butted not only downstairs, but right
through the glass door beyond. The corporal's body escaped unhurt, but
his feelings did not, and Charlie was placed under arrest, and very
nearly expelled from the College.

[Illustration: The Corporal was butted downstairs]

When his term at Woolwich was nearly over, a great deal of bullying was
found to be going on, and the new boys were questioned about it by the
officers in charge. One new boy said that Charlie Gordon had hit him
on the head with a clothes-brush--"not a severe blow," he had to own.
But Charlie's bear-fighting had this time a hard punishment, for he was
put back six months for his commission.

Until then he had meant to be an officer of Artillery--a "gunner," as
they are called. Now he knew that he would always be six months behind
his gunner friends, and so decided to work instead for the Engineers,
and get his commission as a "sapper."

At college, as well as at school, his map-drawing was very good, and
his mother was very proud of what he did. One day he found her showing
some visitors a map he had made. His hatred of being praised for what
he thought he did not deserve, and his hot temper, sprang out together,
and he tore up the map and threw it in the grate.

But almost at once he was sorry for his rudeness and unkindness, and
afterwards he carefully pasted the torn pieces of the map together for
his mother.

"How my mother loved me!" he wrote of her long years afterwards.

His hot temper was sometimes shown to his officers. He would bear more
than his share of blame when he felt that he deserved it, but when he
felt that blame was undeserved, his temper would flash out in a sudden
storm.

One of his superiors at Woolwich once said, scolding him,--"You will
never make an officer."

Charlie's honour was touched. His temper blazed out, and he tore off
his epaulettes and threw them at the officer's feet.

He always hated his examinations, yet he never failed to pass them.

When he was fifty years old, he wrote to his sister,--"I had a fearful
dream last n