It was not that Jerry felt any particular liking for Michael Kennedy, to give him his real name, but the tall lad did not want any member of his squad to look unmilitary, nor did he want a reprimand to be directed toward Pug, as it might reflect on his companions. But Pug Kennedy was still in an ungracious mood, it seemed, for he answered Jerry’s well-meant remark with:
“Mind your own business! It’s my hat cord.”
“True enough,” agreed Jerry, good-naturedly; “but it may not be long, if you wear it that way.”
“Um!” grunted Pug, as he went out. But Ned took notice that, as soon as he was out of sight around the corner of the barracks, the bully put the cord on differently. It was a light blue cord, and indicated to those who knew the regulations, that the man under the hat belonged to the infantry, or foot-soldier, branch of the army.
The cavalry wear yellow cords on their hats; and the artillery, red. The engineers have a red and white mixed cord; the signal corps, orange and white; the medical corps, maroon; and the quartermaster corps, buff.
In addition there are certain ornaments on the collars of the coats to distinguish the different branches of the service. The infantry wear crossed rifles, the cavalry crossed sabers, the field artillery crossed cannon, the engineers a castle, like the castle in a set of chessmen, the signal corps crossed flags with a torch between, the quartermaster corps wheel with a pen and sword crossed and an eagle surmounting, while the members of the medical corps wear something that looks like an upright bar with wings at the top and two snakes twining around it. This is a caduceus, and is a form of the staff usually associated with the god Mercury. The word comes from the Doric and means to proclaim, literally a herald.
“He took your advice, Jerry,” announced Ned, when he saw what Pug Kennedy had done.
“Glad he did. He might have been a little more polite about it, though. I wish he was in some other squad, but I suppose there’s no use trying to graft him somewhere else. We’ll just have to make the best of him.”
“Or the worst,” added Bob.
In their new uniforms the recruits went through the drill, and it could not be denied that now there was a little more snap to it. It was more inspiring to see men all dressed alike doing something in unison than to watch the same company going through motions, one in a brown suit, another in a green and a third in a blue.