nd last, but not least, we began to grouse. That was our
first advance to becoming real soldiers. At least, so the author was
told by an old N.C.O. who had marched with Roberts to Kabul, and who
was again in the Service, too aged to do more than to instruct, but
not too aged to do that well.

Hard work and plain but plentiful food soon made the Battalion as hard
as nails, a phrase coined by the London _Evening News_, and a phrase
that stuck. Quite as important, too, was the fact that a member of the
"hard as nails" Battalion had to prove he was capable of acting up to
it. So it was just a matter of honour that every man should keep off
the sick parades, and not come home in the ambulance when a long route
march or a field day was indulged in.

This took a bit of doing sometimes, for there was no mercy shown us.
We said we wanted the real thing, and, between ourselves, we got it. A
march of seven miles to the scene of operations, a hard field day, and
a march of seven miles home again, with pack, rifle, and full
equipment in other ways, was our lot. We began to recognize that we
were really soldiers, and we patted ourselves on the back.

Sport, too, played a very big part in our training. The Army of to-day
recognizes the fact that athletics makes and keeps our youngsters fit
and well. Our Colonel recognized it from the start, and as we had
plenty of material to work upon we went right away with it. We had a
"soccer" team, a "rugger" team, and a cricket eleven. The records of
the matches we won, and the fact that very few defeats were notched up
against us, proves we had a perfect right to style ourselves "the
First Sportsman's Battalion, the 23rd (Service) Battalion Royal
Fusiliers."

[Illustration: THE CAMP: HORNCHURCH.]

[Illustration: INTERIOR OF A HUT: HORNCHURCH.
To face p. 30]

Scullers, footballers, boxers, runners, wrestlers, actors, musicians,
artists--all these could be had for the asking, and we drew upon them
liberally. We were given plenty of opportunities to indulge in our
passion for sport in the ordinary way, but the private who once asked
for leave in order to go grouse shooting didn't get it. It was
suggested he might put in a little time at the rifle range instead. No
restrictions, however, were put upon any early morning running
matches, and the football and cricket teams were helped in every way.

To get back to the purely military side, however. We groused at the
amount of d