plishing a two-years' term of service, and not to
have finished it yet--that is a performance that cannot be sufficiently
appreciated. Really, I ought to be shown at a fair! Strive, therefore,
to follow my example!"

He looked forward to the man[oe]uvres with a real and almost child-like
pleasure; for, in spite of his eight years' service, he had never taken
part in them. "Something" had always come in the way.

Even Guentz had often to bite his lips to keep himself from laughing at
Plettau's absurdities. He, too, had been curious to make the
acquaintance of the notorious gunner-count, and he, too, was agreeably
surprised. Plettau seemed to him to be a very good fellow, terribly
frivolous, no doubt, but not bad by any means. He was glad to find he
had not been mistaken in his judgment: viewed impartially, the cause of
Plettau's first two acts of insubordination had been malice on the part
of his superior almost amounting to cruelty; and even the last five
years had been added to his term of imprisonment simply because he had
knocked down a sergeant who was proved to have ill-treated a comrade.
All things considered, the gay placidity of temper with which the count
had borne his fate was really remarkable.

For the autumn man[oe]uvres the men and horses were all redistributed
to serve the various guns. Vogt and Klitzing remained in their places,
and for the rest gun six was served as follows:

Gun Six.

(Horses)
Gun-leader Corporal Vertler Christine
Lead-driver Driver Nowack Zenobia, Egon
Centre-driver Driver Inoslavsky Viper, Eidechse
Wheel-driver Bombardier Sickel Turk, Cavalier
Gunners Count Plettau, Wolf,
Truchsess, Klitzing, Vogt.

The leader of the third column was Ensign Gysinger, who had just joined
the regiment from the Military Academy, and had exchanged with
Lieutenant Landsberg, transferred to the first battery. Heimert had for
the first time taken over the distribution of the horses. But when
Heppner saw how the six horses for gun six had been placed, he shook
his head.

"That won't do," said he to Heimert. "The lead and centre horses are
all right, but the wheel-driver must have another beast under him. The
Turk is too old; especially as gun six has always the longes