"Naah," said Shorty weariedly. "Nearly dead for something. Awful stoopid layin' around up there among them hayseeds, doin' nothin'. Jest run down to Jeffersonville to see if I couldn't strike something that'd some life in it."
Si strode over to the group, snatched the bat from Harry's hand, spanked him with it, and started for the others of the group.
ONE:"They was lost in that shuffle back there in the depot," said Shorty. "Lucky it wa'n't more. Wonder that we ever got through as well as we did."We cannot advise....
ONE:"Looks like Judgment morn or the fall of Babylon," muttered the religious-minded Alf Russell, the first to break their awed silence."Neither. Keep perfectly quiet, and 'tend strictly to your little business."
THREE:"Where, you flannel-mouthed Mick?" asked Shorty savagely. "Where do you see the devil?""Lieutenant," suggested Si, "there's no need o' goin' any further just now for a fight. We can have just as nice a one right here as we can find anywhere. I move that we line up back here and wait for them rebels to come on, an' then git 'em on the flank with an enfilade that'll salivate 'em in a holy minute."
THREE:"There are spots the steel's never covered," he said. "You can tunnel through if you're lucky." A pause. "I"Si repressed his petulant words with an effort, and started in to give them an ocular demonstration of the way to execute "right face," but was interrupted by the Lieutenant coming up and saying:
"My, what lots o' men," gasped Harry Joslyn. "We won't be once among sich a crowd. Wonder if Sergeant Klegg and Corpril Elliott kin keep us from bein' lost?"But the old masters were the best. I remember the old masters and the old work, and I want this time to come again. I want the old work, which is easy, and not this new work, which is hard. I want the old slavery, where we know right and wrong, and not the new slavery, where only the masters know and they say they cannot tell us.ARE GIVEN AN INITIATION INTO ARMY LIFE."Say that all again, Sergeant," asked Monty Scruggs.The companies formed up into the regiment on the parade ground, the Colonel mounted his horse, took his position on the right flank, and gave the momentous order:
