THE REPULSE OF THE PRACTICAL JOKERS.
With the report the savages turned their horses and took the back trail, and were soon out of sight.
"The miserable cowards," thought Harry, "to run away from a boy!"
"Harry," said a very shamefaced lad sitting on the ground a few feet away, and rubbing a big lump on the back of his head, "you can put up your gun; there's no danger. I tried to play a joke on you, and the joke came on me. I'm glad that you only had bird-shot in that gun of yours, because you might have killed one of father's cowboys. But I say, Harry, dear old fellow, it was awfully brave of you to stand by me when I was knocked silly by that tumble, and I appreciate it just as much as though it was all real work instead of a joke; and—and—oh! I say Harry, old fellow, don't say anything about it, and if any one ever dares to call you a tenderfoot again when I'm around, why, I'll brand him with the jolliest, biggest iron that we've got on the ranch!"
[DRILLING A GREAT ARMY IN WINTER.]
The effectiveness of any of the great European standing armies depends, above all things, upon their being able and ready to take the field at a moment's notice. This theory is taught in most of the military schools abroad, and it is an excellent one; but there are many and almost insurmountable difficulties to overcome in putting it into practice. Still, in order to reach the highest efficiency, troops are trained to manœuvre in all weather and at all seasons, especially in France and Germany and Russia. The Russians, having more winter weather, perhaps, than the other nations of Europe, were the first to recognize the value and importance of drills on snow and ice, and have trained their armies to take the field in the depth of winter.
Germany has followed this example, and during the winter months the various corps of her vast army carried on mock warfare in various parts of the empire. Extreme cold is, of course, a great obstacle to the mobilization of troops. It is not always possible to secure lodgings for soldiers in towns and villages, especially in times of peace, when the necessity is not absolute; and the alternative of sleeping in tents, with the snow lying deep on the ground and the thermometer below zero, seems at first thought impracticable. And yet it has been shown, by the recent manœuvres of the German troops, that with dire precautions men suffer no ill effects from this exposure. The tents which have been found to be the most useful are very small, and have proved warmer than the larger ones. The temperature inside the canvas is generally about ten degrees higher than outside, to begin with, and rises when occupied by soldiers. The men are also kept warm by having hot coffee served to them at intervals of two hours throughout the night. The chief object, of course, of winter manœuvres is to accustom soldiers to sleep in tents during severe weather, and to learn to know the conditions which winter campaigning imposes.