Sharpe's dream-farm had no labourers beside himself. Perhaps that was naive? He did not know. But the notion of employing someone was foreign to him. He was no employer.
"Though I can't see it doing much, income-wise. But I suppose it's better than spending your whole bloody pay on mess bills."
Officers had to pay for the mess, even if they did not use it. And most officers saw it as a negligible expense because they had their own incomes coming from somewhere else. But for a man whose commission had to pay for it all -- sword, bills, all of it? He'd often been left with very little but his silver buttons to show for it.
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Sharpe's dream-farm had no labourers beside himself. Perhaps that was naive? He did not know. But the notion of employing someone was foreign to him. He was no employer.
"Though I can't see it doing much, income-wise. But I suppose it's better than spending your whole bloody pay on mess bills."
Officers had to pay for the mess, even if they did not use it. And most officers saw it as a negligible expense because they had their own incomes coming from somewhere else. But for a man whose commission had to pay for it all -- sword, bills, all of it? He'd often been left with very little but his silver buttons to show for it.