dooty, cleanin' up the parade ground."

"No; Oi've not bin on extry doty for narely two wakes now, but it's
about due. But here comes Barney Maguire and Con Taylor, Tony Wilson and
the rest iv the gang. Lord love yez, but they'll be surely glad to see
yez."

The others came up with a tumultuous welcome to both.

"Where's the camp?" asked Si.

"Jist bey ant--jist bey ant them cedars there--not a musket-shot away,"
answered Jim, pointing to the place.

"What'd you mean, you infernal liars, by tellin' us that the rijimint
was gone?" said Shorty, wrathfully to the men whom he had met, and who
were still standing near, looking puzzled at the demonstrations.

"Aisy, now, aisy," said Jim. "We're to blame for that, so we are. Ye
say, we wint over by Rossville last night and had a bit av a shindy and
cleaned out a sutler's shop. We brought away some av the most illegant
whisky that iver wet a man's lips, and hid it down there in the gulch,
where we had jist come back for it. We sane you comin' and thought yez
was the provo-guard after us. Ye say ye stopped there and talked to that
peacock at the Provo-Marshal's quarters, and we thought yez was gittin'
instructions. We sint these rookies out, who we thought nobody'd know,
to give you a little fairy story about the rijimint being gone, to throw
you off the scint, until we could finish the liquor."

"Yes, I know," laughed Shorty, "after you'd got the budge down you
didn't care what happened. You're the same old brick-topped Connaught
Ranger."

"You and Si come down into the gulch and jine us."

"Can't think of it for a minute," said Shorty with great self-denial.
"Don't speak so loud before these boys. They're recruits for the
rijimint. We must take 'em into camp. We'll see you later."

CHAPTER IV. THE RECRUITS ARE ASSIGNED TO COMPANIES.

THE strangest feeling possessed Si and Shorty when once in the camp of
their old regiment, and after the first hearty welcome of their comrades
was over.

There was a strangeness about everything that they could not comprehend.

It was their regiment--the 200th Ind.; it was made up of the same
companies, with the great majority of the men the same, but it was very
far from being the 200th Ind. which crossed the Ohio River in September,
1862.

Marvelous changes had been wrought by 18 months' tuition in the iron
school of war, in the 10 separate herds of undisciplined farmer boys
which originally constituted the regiment. Yello