REGIMENT 129 ]

All the members took a hand in the game. They just got right up and
yelled, discharging at Si a volley of expletives and pointed remarks
that drove him to desperation. Instinctively he brought up his gun.

"Load in nine times--Load!" shouted a dozen of the Illinois tramps.

If Si's gun had been loaded he would have shot somebody, regardless of
consequences. Thinking of his bayonet, he jerked it quickly from its
scabbard.

"Fix--Bay'net!" yelled the ragged veterans.

And he did, though it was more from the promptings of his own hostile
feelings than in obedience to the orders.

"Charge--Bay'net!"

Si had completely lost control of himself in his overpowering rage. With
blood in his eye, he came to, a charge, glancing fiercely from one side
of the road to the other, uncertain where to begin the assault.

Instantly there was a loud clicking all along the line. The Illinois
soldiers, almost to a man, fixed their bayonets. Half of them sprang to
their feet, and all aimed their shining points at the poor young Hoosier
patriot, filling the air with shouts of derision.

It was plain, even to Si in his inflamed state of mind, that the odds
against him were too heavy.

"Unfix--Bay'net!" came from half the regiment.

Si concluded he had better get out of a bad scrape the best way he
could. So he took off his bayonet and put it back in its place. He
shouted words of defiance to his tormentors, but they could not be heard
in the din.

"Shoulder--Arms!" "Right--Face!" "Right shoulder shift--Arms!"
"Forward--March!" These commands came in quick succession from the ranks
amidst roars of laughter.

Si obeyed the orders and started off.

"Left--left--left!"

"Hayfoot--strawfoot!"

Forgetting his blisters. Si took the double-quick while the mob swung
their caps and howled with delight.

Si didn't "ketch up" with the 200 Ind. until after it had gone into
camp. Shorty had a quart of hot coffee waiting for him.

"Shorty," said Si as they sat by the fire,--"I'm goin' to drop dead in my
tracks before I'll fall out again."

"Why, what's the matter?"

"Oh, nothin'; only you jest try it," said Si.

Had it not been for the "fun" the soldiers had in the army to brighten
their otherwise dark and cheerless lives, they would all have died. Si
was a true type of those who had to suffer for the good of others until
they learned wisdom in the school of experience.

CHAPTER XIV. SI AND THE MULES

ONE DAY