look. "Stupid!" he hisses. "As
you were!" Then comes the command for us all, "Parade--rest!"

It was very comfortable, waiting while the band marched up and down. We
were not much stirred by this; we knew by heart all the few tunes; we
thought the drum-major very tiresome with his bent head and his elbow
jogging for the time. But there was, above the ugly mess-shacks straight
in front, the finest sunset to look at: angry clouds to the right, to the
left wide reaches of pure blue, with tiny white clouds stretching in rank
to infinite distance, and in the middle the yellow glow of fire behind
broken masses, through which shot, not beams of light, but rather, it
seemed, wide bars of shadow.

The captain, as we thus stood at parade, hissed back over his shoulder,
"Bad! Some of you men have your feet too far back." This would
particularly disgust him, for at previous practice, taking a gun from a
sergeant, he stood in front of us and said, "Let me show you how Rip Van
Winkle here in the second squad comes to parade rest," and gave us a
ludicrous example of slowness and slovenliness. Then he illustrated, in
briskness and correct position, just how we should do it.

Returned to his place after saluting the major, he said, looking straight
in front, "Your next command is Squads Right." The major's big voice
boomed: "Pass in review--squads right--March!" I turned sharply to my
right, marked time, and when the other three had come into line, together
we stepped out. The band blared out, we were in step, and so approached
the corner. "Column left!" and we did our best to turn correctly, though
nobody could see. Then we marched up the slope, knowing that the real
test was now coming. "Squads left!" and as the rear rank man made way for
me, I stepped into place, and in one line we all strode out together. To
hold the line straight! You on the top of the slope may have cried "How
pretty!" at the rifles all with the same slant, the hands at the same
height, the heads straight front, the feet--one, two! one, two!--in
perfect time with the music. But with us in the line there was intentness
to remedy any unevenness, strain to hold ourselves just right. We could
not look except out of the corners of the eyes; all was done by the touch
of the elbows. For a few yards, rods, it was good. We safely crossed a
slimy patch where a great puddle had just dried, through which on Monday
I tramped ankle deep, and where now a fall would be natural.