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Kipling, Rudyard, 1865-1936

"From Mine Own People"

The thing is how to cut it down without weakening any part of
it, and, at the same time, allowing the trooper to carry everything he wants
for his own comfort--socks and shirts and things of that kind.
Mrs. G. Why doesn't he pack them in a little trunk?
Capt. G. (Kissing her.) Oh, you darling! Pack them in a little trunk, indeed!
Hussars don't carry trunks, and it's a most important thing to make the horse
do all the carrying.
Mrs. G. But why need you bother about it? You're not a trooper.
Capt. G. No; but I command a few score of him; and equipment is nearly
everything in these days.
Mrs. G. More than me?
Capt. G. Stupid! Of course not; but it's a matter that I'm tremendously
interested in, because if I or Jack, or I and Jack, work out some sort of
lighter saddlery and all that, it's possible that we may get it adopted.
Mrs. G. How?
Capt. G. Sanctioned at Home, where they will make a sealed pattern--a pattern
that all the saddlers must copy--and so it will be used by all the regiments.
Mrs. G. And that interests you?
Capt. G. It's part of my profession, y'know, and my profession is a good deal
to me. Everything in a soldier's equipment is important, and if we can improve
that equipment, so much the better for the soldiers and for us.


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