Soldier

A soldier's work is hurting people and damaging things — or being one who can and will do that — when their country's head says to. This sounds very bad, and often it is very bad. But many countries think they need soldiers: if a country has many strong soldiers, other countries fear it, and maybe no one is hurt at all.

How soldiers live

Soldiers live and eat and learn in their own buildings, far from their families. They all put on the same clothing, and they learn to move as one group, all their feet touching the ground at the same time. The most important thing a soldier learns is to do what they are told, quickly, at all times.

When countries use them

When one country's soldiers and another country's soldiers hurt each other for days and months and years, there is a small word for that. This book is not allowed to use it. There is no thing that damages more, and no thing that people fear more — and they are right to fear it.

One soldier who became his country's head, and then took many other countries, was the small soldier.