Excerpt from An Initial Experience: And Other Stories These were the few disagreeable features of the duty. Its prides and pleasures were many. It was wonderfiii, it was thrilling, one lovely evening in the early autumn, to listen to the clicking of the telegraph instrument in the office of the assistant adjutant-general, to watch the eager light on the face of the Operator, and the expectant look on those Of the Officers close at hand, and then to hear the low voice of the general as he read the pencilled despatch directing him to hold his brigade in readiness to march at a moment's notice - no one could say whither. Further telegraphing there was, to and fro, and intimation that there was no need of keeping the men in ranks, or even sleeping on their arms. In those early days of the war many officials thought it necessary to warn commands to be ready at a moment's notice, when an hour's would have been amply sufficient. Perhaps it was necessary, but we Badgers were eager to move, and didn't think such precaution called for. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.