eveloped by
six years of vagabonding before he enlisted, was scarcely yet
disciplined into the military machine of the regulation pattern that
it should and must become before he could be counted a model soldier.
His captain had promoted him to steady him, if that could be, and to
give his better qualities a chance. Since then he had never been drunk
at the wrong time. Two years ago it would not have entered his
free-lance heart to be reticent with any man, high or low, about any
pleasure in which he saw fit to indulge; to-day he had been shy over
confessing to the commanding officer his leaning to cock-fights--a
sign of his approach to the correct mental attitude of the enlisted
man. Being corporal had wakened in him a new instinct, and this
State-House affair was the first chance he had had to show himself. He
gave the order to proceed at a walk in such a tone that one of the
troopers whispered to another, "Specimen ain't going to forget he's
wearing a chevron."

III

The brief silence that Jones and his invitation to supper had caused
among the Councillors was first broken by F. Jackson Gilet.

"Gentlemen," he said, "as President of the Council I rejoice in an
interruption that has given pause to our haste and saved us from
ill-considered expressions of opinion. The Gove'nuh has, I confess,
surprised me. Befo' examining the legal aspect of our case I will ask
the Gove'nuh if he is familiar with the sundry statutes applicable."

"I think so," Ballard replied, pleasantly.

"I had supposed," continued the President of the Council--"nay, I had
congratulated myself that our weightiuh tasks of law-making and so fo'th
were consummated yesterday, our thirty-ninth day, and that our friendly
game of last night would be, as it were, the finis that crowned with
pleashuh the work of a session memorable for its harmony."

This was not wholly accurate, but near enough. The Governor had vetoed
several bills, but Price's Left Wing had had much more than the required
two-thirds vote of both Houses to make these bills laws over the
Governor's head. This may be called harmony in a manner. Gilet now went
on to say that any doubts which the Governor entertained concerning the
legality of his paying any salaries could easily be settled without
entering upon discussion. Discussion at such a juncture could not but
tend towards informality. The President of the Council could well
remember most unfortunate discussions in Missouri betw