Training was a dreary waste of time, as a matter of factexcept that it happened to be necessary. There was no doubt of that: without sufficient manual labor, the metal would not be dug, the smelters would not run, the purifying stages and the cooling stages and even the shipping itself would simply stop. Automation would have solved everything, but automation was expensive. The Alberts were cheapso Fruyling's World used Alberts instead of transistors and cryogenic relays.
FORE:He stood for a few minutes and looked at the grand display until the union batteries, satisfied that they had finally quashed the impudent rebel, ceased firing, and then he looked around.
ONE:
TWO:"Hello, Monty," called Shorty jovially to drive out the sad thoughts. "Got that kink out o' your backbone? Bully boy. You've got the right kind of nerve. You'll be a man before your mother yet."
THREE:"How do you know there are any Yankees out there? I don't believe they have advanced beyond the crest of the hill. I think they are all going down toward Resaca. Haven't you any pickets out there?"All that was left of the regiment was now through the abatis. The fog suddenly lifted, and showed the combatants face to face, with only the ditch and the bank of earth between them. The sight was so startling that both sides paused for an instant.
FORE:CHAPTER XVII. THE FRIGHTENED SURGEON"What's that?" he inquired, as the messenger handed the latter the note.
"Mustn't we eat none o' their pies?" asked the boys, with longing remembrance of the fragrant products of their mothers' ovens."Take off the bandage at once, I tell you," said the Surgeon imperatively. "I haven't any time to waste. Let me see your wound.""A real gun, that'll be all my own, and will shoot and kick, and crack loud?"He learned about the invasion, for instanceor as much about it as Marvor, the elders and a few other late arrivals could piece together. Their explanations made surprisingly good sense, in the main, though none of them, not even Marvor, could quite comprehend the notion of masters having masters above them: it appeared contrary to reason.