How it opens
You bought your ensigncy in the 44th in the autumn of 1841 and joined at Kabul with two shirts, a pony, and the army's whole opinion of itself for company.
The cantonments stood on a plain below the city, four miles of low wall around a camp of huts, with the Bala Hissar fortress empty to the right and the hills to the left, and every officer who saw it had the same two words for it.
Ensign, is it. Weel, only an ensign, and this is a post where a'most anything is plenty. Come away and meet your regiment, such as the winter has left of it.
Choose
Walk the walls with the sergeant and learn the geometry of the place.
Present yourself to Captain Selby of your company and take his orders.
Get your men's names before you get your own bed made.