It was a warm, bright March day, with the North Georgia mountains rapidly robing themselves in fresh green, to welcome the coming Spring. The effervescent boys had entirely4 forgotten the worries of the previous night, and were frolicking in the bright sunshine as if "out-at-recess" from school.
Mackall, Joslyn, Humphreys and Baker6 had gotten hold of a ball, and were having a game of "two-cornered cat," with noise enough for a whole school play-ground. Russell and Scruggs were running a foot-race, for the entertainment of a squad of cooks and teamsters, and little Pete Skidmore was giving an exhibition before the same audience of his ability to stand on his head, and turn somersaults.
"Little thought they have of the seriousness of war," thought Si, with a shrug7 of his shoulders, as he yelled out:
"Come, boys, fall in here."
When the boys had first come under Si's command they regarded him as one of the greatest men in the army. In their shadowy notions of military matters they rather thought that he stood next to the great Generals whose names filled all mouths. These ideas had been toppled into dust by their arrival in camp, and seeing so many different men order him around. They felt ashamed of themselves that they had ever mistaken him for a great man, and put him up on a pedestal. That is the way with boys. They resent nothing more sharply than the thought of their having been deceived into honoring somebody or something unworthy of honor. They can stand anything better than a reflection upon their shrewdness and judgment8.
"Hear Klegg a-calling?" said Joslyn, pausing for an instant, with the ball in his hand.
"Let him call," said Mackall, indifferently, finishing his run to base. "He ain't big boss no more. He's only the lowest Sergeant in the company. Throw the ball, Harry9. You must do better'n you've been doing. We're getting away with you."
"Fall in here, boys, I tell you," said Si so sternly that Pete Skidmore stopped in his handspring, but seeing the bigger boys making no move to obey, decided10 that it would be improper11 for him to show any signs of weakness, and he executed his flip-flap.
"Here, you're out, Gid. Gi' me the bat," shouted Harry Joslyn, as he caught the ball which Mackall had vainly struck at.
Si strode over to the group, snatched the bat from Harry's hand, spanked12 him with it, and started for the others of the group.
"Say, you musn't hit that boy," exclaimed Gid, jumping on Si's back. Gid was as ready to fight for Harry as to fight with him. The others rushed up, school boy like, to defend their companion against "the man," and little Pete Skidmore picked up a stone and adjusted it for throwing.
"Why, you little scamps you," gasped13 Si in amazement14. "What'd you mean? Ain't you goin' to obey my orders?"
"You haint no right to give us orders no more," asserted Humphreys, flourishing his bat defiantly15. "You're only an enlisted16 man, same as the rest o' us. They told us so, last night, and that we mustn't let you impose on us, as you'd bin3 doin'. Only the Captain and the Colonel command us. We've bin posted. And if you dare hit any o' us we'll all jump on you and maul your head offen you."
The rest looked approval of Jim's brave words.
"We're goin' to strike for our altars and our fires. Strike for the green graves of our sires. God and our native land," declaimed Monty Scruggs.
The waspish little mutiny was so amusing that Si had to smile in spite of himself. With a quick, unexpected movement he snatched the bat from Jim Humphreys' hand, and said good-humoredly:
"Now, boys, you mustn't make fools of yourselves agin'. Stop this nonsense at once, I tell you. I'm just as much your commandin' officer as I ever was."
"How can you be a commanding officer, when everybody else bosses you about?" persisted the argumentative Monty Scruggs. "Everybody that comes near you orders you around, just the same as you used to us, and you mind 'em. That ain't no way for a commanding officer. We don't want anybody bossing us that everybody else bosses."
"Well, that's the way o' the army," Si explained patiently, "and you've got to git used to it. 'Most everybody bosses somebody else. The President tells Gen. Grant what he wants done. Gen. Grant orders Gen, Thomas to do it. Gen. Thomas orders a Major-General. The Major-General orders a Brigadier-General. The Brigadier-General orders our Colonel. Our Colonel orders Cap McGillicuddy. Cap McGillicuddy orders the Orderly-Sarjint, the Orderly-Sarjint orders me, and I command you."
"Why, it's worse'n 'The-House-That-Jack-Built,'" said Monty Scruggs.
"Well, you needn't learn all of it," said Si. "It's enough for you to know that I command you. That's the A B C of the business, and all you need know. A man in the army gits into trouble offen by knowin' too much. You git it well into your craws that I command you, and that you've got to do just as I say, and I'll do the rest o' the knowin' that you need.—"
"But how're we to know that you're right every time," argued Monty Scruggs.
"Well," explained the patient Si, "if you've any doubts, go to the Orderly-Sarjint. If he don't satisfy you, go to the Captain. If you have doubts about him, carry it to the Colonel. If you're still in doubt, refer it to the Brigadier-General, then to the Major-General, to Gen. Thomas, Gen. Grant, and lastly to the President of the United States."
"Great goodness!" they gasped.
"But the less you bother your heads with Captains and Curnels and Generals the better you'll git along. The feller that's right over you—in arm's length o' you all the time—is the feller that you've got to look out for sharply. I'm him. Now I want you to form in two ranks quicker'n scat, and 'tend to business. I'm goin' to drill you. Gid Mackall, take your place there. Harry Joslyn, stand behind him."
The old squabbles as to precedence immediately broke out between Gid and Harry, which Si impatiently ended by snatching Harry by the collar and yanking him behind Gid, with the wrathful Harry protesting that he intended carrying the matter up through the whole military hierarchy17, even to the President of the United States, if necessary. He did not come into the army to be run over.
"You came into the army to do just as I tell you, and you'll do it. Silence in the ranks," commanded Si. "Humphreys, stand next to Mackall. Scruggs, stand behind Humphreys."
"Why do you put one man behind another?" queried18 Monty Scruggs. "I don't think that's right.—Jim's big head'll be forever in my way, so's I can't see anything. Why don't you put us out in one line, like a class in school? Then everybody's got the same show."
"I didn't make the tactics. Git into your places," snapped Si.
"Well, I don't think much of a teacher that can't explain what he's teaching," mumbled19 Monty, as he reluctantly obeyed.
"Now, Russell, stand next to Humphreys; Baker, stand behind Russell; Skidmore, stand next to Russell."
"Goody, I'm in the front rank," giggled20 little Pete, and Harry Joslyn looked as if here was another case of favoritism that he would have to call the President's attention to.
"Now," commanded Si, "put your heels together, turn your toes out, stand erect22, draw your stomachs in—"
'draw Your Stomachs In. 73
"Look here, Jim Humphreys," grumbled23 Monty Scruggs, "when he told you to draw your stomach in he didn't mean for you to stick your hips24 out till you bumped me over into the next Township. I've got to have room to stand here, as well as you."
"Silence in the ranks," commanded Si. "Draw your stomachs in, put your little fingers down to the seams of your pantaloons—"
"You mean the middle finger, don't you?" queried Monty Scruggs. "That's more natural way of standing25."
"No, I mean the little finger," asserted Si.
"But the middle finger is more natural," persisted Monty. "You can't stand straight with your little finger at the seam. See here."
"Scruggs, do as I say, without no words," said Si, and then Monty's face took on an expression of determination to carry the matter to a higher court.
"Now, keep your faces straight to the front, and at the command 'Right dress!' turn your eyes, without moving your heads, until you kin5 see the buttons on the breast of the second man to the right. 'Right dress!'"
"There's no man on my right for me to look toward. What 'm I to do?" complained Gid Mackall.
"There, you see what come o' putting him in front," exulted26 Harry Joslyn. "Now, if I'd bin—"
"Say, I can't see up to Jim Humphreys' big breast without twistin' my neck nearly off," murmured little Pete Skidmore. "Can't you make him scrooch a little? Jest see him swell27 up."
"What's the use o' linin' on a feller that can't stand still a second?" complained the others.
"Great Scott, what a line," groaned28 Si, walking along, shoving the boys back, and twisting them around, to get them straight. "Crooked29 as a pumpkin30 vine in a cornfield. Here, I told you not to turn your heads, but only your eyes. If you snipes wouldn't gab31 so much, but listen to what I say, you'd git along better. Silence in ranks. Now, try it over again. Faces straight to the front. Eyes cast to the right, until they catch the buttons on the breast of the second man. Right dress!"
"Great grief," sighed he, looking at the result. "You wriggle32 about like so many eels21. Might as well try to line up so many kittens. Won't you straighten Up and keep straight?" Then came a renewal33 of the noisy discussion, with mutual34 blaming of one another.
Si picked up a stick and drew a line in the ground. "Now bring your toes to that line, and keep 'em there."
"Shall we take that scratch along with us as we march, or will you draw another one for us as we need it?" Monty Scruggs asked, at which the other boys laughed, which did not improve Si's temper. It was long, hard work before he got the restless, talkative young fellows so that they would form a fairly straight line, and maintain it for a minute or two.
He looked at them, wiped his perspiring35 brow, and remarked internally:
"Well, I thought them was bright boys, that it'd be no trouble to drill. I'd ruther break in the stoonidest lot o' hayseeds that ever breathed, rather than boys that think they know more'n I do. Now I'm goin' to have the time o' my life learnin' 'em the right face."
He began the explanation of that complicated manuver:
"Now, I want every one o' you to stop talkin', gether up them scatter-fire brains o' your'n, and pay strict 'tention to every word I say—"
"Harry Joslyn," broke in Gid, "if you tramp on my heels just one more time, I'll knock your head off. I've told you often enough."
"Well, you just keep off en my toes with them rockgrinders o' your'n," Harry retorted.
"Silence in ranks," commanded Si. "Each rank will count twos."
"What are twos? Where are they, and how many of 'em do you want us to count?" asked Monty Scruggs, at which the other boys snickered. They were getting very tired of the drill, and in the humor to nag36 and balk37 the drillmaster. Si lost a trifle of his temper, and said:
"You're too all-fired smart with your tongue, Scruggs. If you were only half as smart learnin' your business—"
"Sergeant," said one of the Lieutenants38 who happened to be passing, "keep your temper. You'll get along better. Don't squabble with your men."
This made the boys much worse.
"What I mean by countin' twos," explained Si, "is that the man on the right in each rank shall count one, the next one, two; the next one, one and so on. Count twos!"
They made such an exasperating40 muddle41 of it, that Si almost had a fit. The cooks, teamsters and other hangers-on saw the trouble and came flocking around with all manner of jesting remarks and laughter, which strained Si's temper to the utmost, and encouraged the boys in their perversity42. Si curbed43 himself down, and laboriously44 exemplified the manner of counting until the boys had no excuse for not understanding it.
"Now, said he, at the command 'Right face,' the No. 1 man in the front rank faces to the right and stand fast—"
"What do the rest of us do?" they chorused.
"The rest o' you chase yourselves around him," said a humorist among the cooks, while the others laughed uproariously.
"Shut up, you pot-wrastlers," said Si wrathfully. "If I hear another word from you, I'll light into you with a club. Now you brats—"
"Sergeant," admonished45 the Lieutenant39, "you mustn't use such language to your men."
This made Si angrier, and the boys more cantankerous46. Si controlled himself to go on with his explanations in a calm tone:
"No 1 in the front rank will face to the right, and stand fast, and take a side step to the right. Each No. 2 will face to the right, and take on oblique47 side step to the right to place himself on the right hand of his No. 1 man."
"Say that all again, Sergeant," asked Monty Scruggs.
Si patiently repeated the explanation.
"Now sing it to the tune48 of 'When this Cruel War is Over,' called out the cook-humorist.
"Right face," commanded Si.
A roar went up from the camp-follower audience at the hopeless tangle49 which ensued. No two of the boys seemed to have done the same thing. Several had turned to the left, and all were sprinting50 around in various ways in a more or less genuine pretense51 of executing the order. Meanwhile the news that Si's squad of recruits were having fun with him spread through the camp, and a crowd gathered to watch the performance and give their jeering52 advice in that characteristic soldierly way when they see a comrade wrestling with a perplexing job.
"Git a bushel basket, and gather 'em up in it."
"Tie straw around their left feet, and hay around their right ones, so's they'll know 'em."
"Back 'em up agin' a rail fence and git 'em into line;" were among the freely offered suggestions. Si was sweating all over, and so angry that he had to stolidly53 bite his words off, one at a time, to keep from showing his temper. To add to his troubles, he saw the Colonel, of whom he stood in proper awe54, become interested in the crowd and the shouting, and stroll down from his tent to see what the excitement was.
"As you were," Si commanded, steadying his voice with a great effort. "Every one of you git back as I placed you. Right dress!"
To his wonderment they formed as good a line as veterans could have done. They heard a whisper that the Colonel was coming, and it sobered them.
"Right face!" commanded Si.
They all faced to the right and stepped into their places without an error.
"Front!" commanded Si, and they returned to two ranks.
"Ah, Sergeant," said the Colonel, kindly55, as he made his way through the respectfully opened, saluting56 crowd. "Giving your men their first drill, are you? Well, you are getting along remarkably57 well for recruits. I saw that last movement, and it was very well done, indeed. You've got some very nice-looking boys there, and I think they'll be a credit to the regiment58."
"Saved by the skin o' my teeth," gasped Si to himself, as the Colonel strolled on. "Now, you young roosters, I see that you kin do it whenever you want to, and you've got to want to after this. A boy that don't want to I'll take down to the branch there, and hold his head under water till he does want to. I'm goin' to stay with you until you learn the drill dead letter perfect. You can't git rid of me. You'll save trouble by rememberin' that. Now we'll go back for supper. Right face—forward—file left—March!"
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1
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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squad
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| n.班，小队，小团体；vt.把…编成班或小组 | |
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bin
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| n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件 | |
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4
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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baker
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| n.面包师 | |
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7
shrug
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| v.耸肩(表示怀疑、冷漠、不知等) | |
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8
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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9
harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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10
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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improper
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| adj.不适当的，不合适的，不正确的，不合礼仪的 | |
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12
spanked
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| v.用手掌打( spank的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
gasped
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| v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 )；喘息；倒抽气；很想要 | |
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14
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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15
defiantly
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| adv.挑战地，大胆对抗地 | |
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16
enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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17
hierarchy
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| n.等级制度；统治集团，领导层 | |
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18
queried
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| v.质疑，对…表示疑问( query的过去式和过去分词 )；询问 | |
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19
mumbled
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| 含糊地说某事，叽咕，咕哝( mumble的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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giggled
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| v.咯咯地笑( giggle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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21
eels
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| abbr. 电子发射器定位系统（=electronic emitter location system） | |
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22
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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24
hips
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| abbr.high impact polystyrene 高冲击强度聚苯乙烯，耐冲性聚苯乙烯n.臀部( hip的名词复数 )；[建筑学]屋脊；臀围（尺寸）；臀部…的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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exulted
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| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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swell
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| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
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groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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crooked
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| adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的 | |
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pumpkin
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| n.南瓜 | |
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gab
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| v.空谈，唠叨，瞎扯；n.饶舌，多嘴，爱说话 | |
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wriggle
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| v./n.蠕动，扭动；蜿蜒 | |
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renewal
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| adj.(契约)延期，续订，更新，复活，重来 | |
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mutual
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| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
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35
perspiring
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| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
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nag
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| v.(对…)不停地唠叨；n.爱唠叨的人 | |
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balk
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| n.大方木料；v.妨碍；不愿前进或从事某事 | |
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lieutenants
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| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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39
lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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exasperating
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| adj. 激怒的 动词exasperate的现在分词形式 | |
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41
muddle
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| n.困惑，混浊状态；vt.使混乱，使糊涂，使惊呆；vi.胡乱应付，混乱 | |
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42
perversity
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| n.任性；刚愎自用 | |
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43
curbed
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| v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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laboriously
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| adv.艰苦地；费力地；辛勤地；（文体等）佶屈聱牙地 | |
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45
admonished
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| v.劝告( admonish的过去式和过去分词 )；训诫；（温和地）责备；轻责 | |
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cantankerous
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| adj.爱争吵的，脾气不好的 | |
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oblique
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| adj.斜的，倾斜的，无诚意的，不坦率的 | |
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48
tune
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| n.调子；和谐，协调；v.调音，调节，调整 | |
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49
tangle
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| n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱 | |
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50
sprinting
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| v.短距离疾跑( sprint的现在分词 ) | |
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51
pretense
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| n.矫饰，做作，借口 | |
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52
jeering
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| adj.嘲弄的，揶揄的v.嘲笑( jeer的现在分词 ) | |
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53
stolidly
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| adv.迟钝地，神经麻木地 | |
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54
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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55
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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56
saluting
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的现在分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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57
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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