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 nag and balk
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 Lieutenants 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 exasperating muddle 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
perversity. Si curbed himself down, and laboriously 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," admonished the Lieutenant, "you mustn't use such language to
your men."

This made Si angrier, and the boys more cantankerous. 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
oblique 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 tune 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 tangle
which ensued. No two of the bo