r the man enlisting as such brings his own team with him
and naturally will not neglect them.

So one sees the batteries drawn up behind cover, firing slowly and
deliberately as they do now on a "quiet" day along the Western front.

A sharp report, a glint of flame and of the gun recoiling between the
two men sitting on either side of the trail, and another shell is
whirring on its way to the target. Almost before the recoil is finished
the breech is opened and another round thrust in, and the breech closes
with a clitch-clatch of its own. A few seconds later corrections come
over the telephone and another shell goes speeding overhead.

With the infantry, however, Petewawa is a different matter. To them it
means manoeuvres; and every soldier knows what manoeuvres mean.
There is a popular idea that these tactical exercises are enjoyed by the
officers. Perhaps they are, if perchance one is on the staff, a dizzy
height the writer has not yet attained.

Let us follow the fortunes of a typical Militia battalion during the
several days covered by this mysterious term "manoeuvres."

The General Idea has been received the night before and duly discussed
at the "pow-wow" or conference that always follows the reception of this
document. Much time and whisky has been consumed, and the sum of the
evening's discussion is that the General Idea is exactly the same as
last year's, with the exception that the Blue Force is fighting the Grey
Force this year. "Last year we had the Red Army to contend with, and the
fact that they no longer oppose us is due to the annihilation they
suffered"--so says the colonel. "The invasion is coming from the
north--presumably the Esquimaux are up in arms against us."

Dawn brings with it reveille and brigade orders. This is a magnificent
bluff on the part of the brigade staff to give the impression that they
have sat up all night devising new and wondrous schemes for departing
from the beaten path of military science. This is quite unnecessary, as
sufficient departures will occur naturally in the course of the day, and
nothing on earth will convince the infantry officer that the staff ever
work.

The colonel, however, reads the orders to the little group around him.
First there is the General Idea, laboriously copied from orders of the
night before. Then comes the "Special Idea." This, too, bears a
time-worn similarity to its predecessors, but passes without special
comment. The next heading is "