er 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 judgment.

"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, Harry. 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, decided that it would be improper 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, spanked
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," gasped Si in amazement. "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 defiantly. "You're only an enlisted 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 bin 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