Obedient to orders, every boy's head drooped in a moment.
"Stop!" said Horace, knitting his brows; "that's enough!" For there seemed to be something wrong, he could not tell what.
"Now you may ''bout face;' that means whirl round. Now march! one, two, quick time, double-quick!"
"They're stepping on my toes," cried barefooted Peter Grant.
"Hush right up, private, or I'll stand you on the bar'l."
"I wish't you would," groaned little Peter; "it hurts."
"Well, then, I shan't," said the captain, decidedly, "for 'twouldn't be any punishin'.—Can't some of you whistle?"
Willy Snow struck up Yankee Doodle, which soon charmed the wayward feet of the little volunteers, and set them to marching in good time.
Afterward their captain gave instructions in "groundin' arms," "stackin' arms," "firin'," and "countin' a march," by which he meant "countermarching." He had really read a good many pages in Infantry Tactics, and had treasured up the military phrases with some care, though he had but a confused idea of their meaning.
"Holler-square!" said he, when he could think of nothing else to say. Of course he meant a "hollow square."