From Kabul to Kumassi

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FROM KABUL TO KUMASSI CHAPTER I 1877-1879 SANDHURST-JULLUNDER-SIALKOTE-THE AFGHAN WAR-RAWUL PINDI YOU cannot put old heads on young shoulders, and perhaps it is as well. In my own case I very nearly missed being a soldier because I would not sit down and tackle the hateful books put into my hands by Army...
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FROM KABUL TO KUMASSI CHAPTER I 1877-1879 SANDHURST-JULLUNDER-SIALKOTE-THE AFGHAN WAR-RAWUL PINDI YOU cannot put old heads on young shoulders, and perhaps it is as well. In my own case I very nearly missed being a soldier because I would not sit down and tackle the hateful books put into my hands by Army tutors. Competitive examinations are necessary evils, but of the trials of life they form a most painful part. At seventeen years of age I went up for my first examination, and failed; this was followed by another a year later, only with no better success, and I then foolishly and hastily made up my mind to try other fields. I left England, the tea gardens of Assam or the coffee plantations of Ceylon appeared to me to be places where competition without examinations could be indulged in. However, long second-class passages in third- class steamers, and the advice of a good father, brought me to my senses, and I once again found myself in England, but with only a few months in hand wherein I might still get my commission, or the age clause would debar me. Hard work and a good tutor passed me into Sandhurst, and in the winter of 1877 I was duly installed as a gentleman cadet at the Royal Military College. I lost two years in seniority, but those two years were not wasted. If you need a lesson in common-sense it is as well to learn it young. Two low-class foreigners were my fellow-passengers in a filthy cabin below water-line during my first outward sea voyage of forty days' duration, and in another passage on an B 'Ital1an vessel I had'no kind of cabin, but slept on a narrow seat in the petty-officers' mess-room, or wherever else I could find space. The horror of that voyage haunts me still, but it did me good; I had few belongings when we set sail; I had none when w...