And at the dress-parade he appeared with his captain’s straps at the head of his company.
But if Wing was not satisfied with his promotion, neither was his company satisfied with their captain. Apparently there was no love lost between them.
When the dress-parade was over and the men at liberty to rove over the camp and gather in groups to smoke or gossip, the members of company K were heard to indulge in mutterings of discontent, not loud but deep. Before the appointment of Wing as their captain, company K had been commanded by a tall, stalwart, athletic first lieutenant, who was very popular among the men. And this circumstance made the “baby adjutant,” as they called him, still less acceptable as their captain.
“To put that little fellow over us! a mere lad!” indignantly growled Sergeant Copley.
“Looks like a girl in boy’s clothes!” grumbled Corporal Bang.
“‘Boy,’ ‘girl?’ Why he is a mere infant!” exclaimed Corporal West.
“A mere threadpaper! a mere cobweb! I wonder how he’ll stand fire!” laughed Sergeant Jones.
“I wonder what the devil the Secretary of War could have been thinking of!” muttered Corporal Quartz.
“I should like to see him in an engagement once!” said Copley.
“And so should I!”