The boys dispersed, pleased that the colonel had been so lenient with them and that their only punishment had been the loss of the articles which they had secured in their expedition.
When the two young soldiers were again in their tent, Dennis said to Noel, "That little sutler, Levi, is to blame for all this trouble. He thought the boys would be after buyin' not so much of him. He's the first of all the men who put us on hard tack that was 'cut and dried long before Noah died.'" And Dennis began to sing noisily,—
"My rations are S.B.,
Taken from porkers three
Thousand years old;
And hard-tack cut and dried
Long before Noah died,—
From what wars left aside
Ne'er can be told."
"I'm afraid the colonel won't be so easy next time," suggested Noel.
"Don't you worry about that," said Dennis. "The next time there won't be any Levi to carry tales to him. I have got it all fixed up in me mind. We're going to make Levi a good soldier."
"You can't do that," laughed Noel, "unless you begin at his feet."
"That's where we propose to begin."
"What are you going to do?"
"Noel, me boy," whispered Dennis, "I can't tell you all the details, but we're goin' to have a sham fight here between the Forty-sixth and the Fifty-first, and I shouldn't be one bit surprised if Levi Kadoff's supplies were somewhere near the middle of the battle-ground."
Noel laughed and thought no more concerning the statement of his comrade until the following day when to his surprise he discovered that there was, indeed, to be a sham battle between some of the men of the two regiments to which Dennis had referred.