Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-02-19

THEY'RE MOSTLY YOUR OWN soRr.' did not dare to answer, for they were new boys in a strange school, who had called themselves soldiers at the depot in comfortable England.
 Not a single pair O shoulders in the whole lotl I've seen some bad drafts; but this ere draft beats any draft I've ever known. Jock, come an look these squigy. ham-shanked beggars."
 Learoyd was walking across the square. He arrived slowly, circled round the knot as a whale circles round a shoal of small fry, said nothing and went away, whistling.
 "Yes, you may we'll look sheepy," Ortheris squeaked to the boys. tits the likes O you breaks the 'earts of the likes of us. We've got to lick you into shape, and never 8 ha'penny extry do we get for so doin', and you aint never grateful neither. Don't you go thinkin' it s the colonel, nor yet the company orf'cer that makes you. It's me, you Johnny Raws-you Johnnie bloomin' Rawsl''
 A company officer had come up unper- ceived behind Ortheris at the end of this oration.
 You may be right, Ortheris," he said, quietly, "but shouldn't shout it.''
 The recruits grinned. as Ortheris saluted and collapsed.
 Some days afterwards l was priv. ileged to look over the new batch, and they were everything that Ortheris had said, and more. B company had been devastated by forty or fifty of them, and B company's drill on parade was a sight to shudder at. Ortheris asked them lovingly: Whether they had not been sent out by mistake, and whether they had not better post themselves back to their friends" royd.thrashed them methodically one by one, without haste but without slovenliness; and the older soldiers took the remnants from Lea royd and went over them in their own fashion. Mulvaney stayed in hospital, and grinned from the balcony when Ortheris called him shirker and other worse names.
 By the grace av God we'll brew men av them yet," Terence said one day "Be vartuous and parsavere, me son There's the makin's of colonels in that mob if we only go deep enough-wid belt"
 ''We!'' Ortlteris replied, dancing with rage. ''I just like you and your we's. 'Ere's company 'drillin' like drunk militia reg ment-"
 ''So I've been officially acquent, was the answer from on high; but I'm too sick this tide to make certain"
 An you, you fat H'Irishman, ,'shiftin' an shirkin' up there among the arrer' root an the sago."
 An the port wine. You've forgot the port wine, Orth'ris. It's none so so bad" Terence smacked his lips pro vokingly.
 An we're wore off our feet with these .'cre-kangaroos. Come out O that, an earn your pay. Come on down outer that an do somethin' stead c grinnin' up there like Jew monkey, you frowzy- headed Fenian."
 ''When I'm better av my various com plaints I'll have little private talkin' wid you. In the meanwhile
 Terence flung an empty medicine-bot- tie at Ortheris' head and dropped into long chair, and Ortheris came to tell me his opinion of Mulvaney three times over-each tim2 entirely varying all the words.
 ''There'll be a smash-up one O these days" he concluded. ''Wel, it's no fault O mine, but it's ard on B conl- pany."
 It was very hard on E company, for twenty seasoned men cannot push twice that number of fools into their places and keep their own places at the same time. The recruits should have been more evenly distributed through the regiment, but it seemed good to the colonel to mass them in a company where there was a large proportion ot old soldiers. He found his reward early one morning when the battalion was advancing by companies in echelon from the right. The order was given to form company squares, which are compact little bricks of men very un- pleasant for line of charging cavalry to deal with. B company was on the left flank, and had ample time to know what was going on. For that reason presumably, it gathered itself into a thing like a decayed aloe-clump, the bayonets pointing anywhere in general and nowhere in particular; and in that clump, roundel or mob it stayed till the dust had gone down and the colone. could see and speak. He did both, anC the speaking was admitted by the regi ment to be the best thing the ''olC man" had ever risen to since one de lightful day at sham-fght, when 2 cavalry division had occasion to wall over his line of skirmishers. He said almost weeping, that he had given nc order for rallying groups, and that ht preferred to see little dressing among the men occasionally. He then apolo gized for having mistaken B company for men. He said that they were but little weak children, and since he could not offer them each a perambulator anc a nursemaid (this may sound comic tc read, but B company heard it by worG of mouth and wincedl perhaps tho best thing for them to do would be to gt l back to squad drill. To that end hC