y. "Nonsense, Tom, don't be
poky, come back and drill."

"I won't! Let us alone, will you?"

"All we want is, let us alone!" chanted Peter. "There, Fred, let him be
cross if he wants to, we can play without him;" and the boys ran back to
their places in the ranks, Freddy calling out, "Come fellows, let's try
that old parade rest once more;" and on Jerry's giving the command, they
really _did_ do it this time, and were pronounced capable of passing to
grander evolutions.

The first of these was the turn about so as to fall in ranks; something
the Dashahed Zouaves hadn't dreamt of before. Get into ranks? Nothing
could be easier than to stand four in a row, as they had done before;
but when it came to "right face," most of the soldiers were found to
have opposite views on the subject, and faced each other, to their
mutual astonishment. The natural consequence was, that in three seconds
the regiment was in such a snarl and huddle, that no one could tell
which rank he belonged to or anything else; so Jerry, perfectly purple
in the face with shouting, by way of helping them out of the scrape,
gave them the following remarkable advice: "Squad, 'shun! At th' wud
'Foz' the rer-rank will stepsmartly off wi' th' leffut, tekkinapesstoth'
rare--Fo-o-o-res!"

"W-h-a-t!" was the unanimous exclamation.

Jerry repeated his mandate, which, after infinite puzzling (the honest
sergeant being no assistance whatever), was discovered to mean, "At the
word 'Fours,' the rear rank will step smartly off with the left foot,
taking a pace to the rear. Fours!"

This difficulty solved, the next "article on the programme," as Peter
said, was the command March! or "harch!" according to Jerry.

Out stepped Freddy, confident that he knew this much at any rate,
followed by the others; but here again that celebrated left foot got
them into trouble. The right foot _would_ pop out here and there, and as
sure as it did, at the third step the unlucky Zouave found his leg
firmly stuck between the ankles of the boy in front; and the "man"
behind him treading on his heels in a way calculated to aggravate a
saint; while meantime, the fellows in the rear rank, who were forever
falling behind while they were staring at their feet to make sure which
was the left one, _would_ endeavor to make up for it by taking a wide
straddling step all of a sudden, and encircled the legs of people in
front; a proceeding which, not being in accordance with "Hardee's
Tactics