[coaster-devel] Up for a lack of human companionship. The other fellows contented

[Darakjian <ha...@av...>]

 He was going with the task of building some wooden huts for the
soldiers, and lumber was being shipped at the same time. But the
soldiers for whom these shelters were intended were even then dying from
exposure on the plains of Sebastopol. It was the first lesson of
unpreparedness. Of this, however, the young engineer was then ignorant.
He was in high spirits over the prospect of action and seeing the world.
He arrived at Marseilles "very tired," as he writes to his mother, but
not too tired to give her a detailed description of what he has seen
thus far--"the pretty towns and villages, vineyards and rivers, with
glimpses of snowy mountains beyond." On New Year's Day he reached his
destination, Balaklava. It was the depth of winter, and disaster stared
the British in the face. The Russians were having the best of it. They
were out-generalling the enemy at every turn. The British could do
little more than dig in and hang on, with the bull-dog stubbornness
which has always marked them. At first, the young lieutenant heard
little of this. His duties as construction engineer kept him busy six
miles back of the battle line. "I have not ye