soon fired the ambition of the other boys, and in a week had
organized a company--or "squad," as he decided it really was--composed
of ten raw recruits and a band of two, mustered under the banner of the
Raleigh Reds.

They drilled faithfully day after day under the command of their
enthusiastic Sergeant, and the discordant sounds from the fife and drum
became a nuisance to the neighborhood.

But now that the novelty of the drill was wearing off, the boys began to
pine for active service, and wild plans of campaigns, with long
marches, bloody battles, and glorious victories, floated through Tommy's
brain, as he nightly revolved the future of the Raleigh Reds.

* * * * *

"Well, how are we going to celebrate the Fourth?" asked Lilly Atkins,
throwing down the knife in disgust, after failing ignominiously in the
delicate operation known as "eating oysters." "It's no fun just marching
at the tail end of a parade."

"We might make another raid on old Jones's cattle," suggested Herbert
Day; "we know a lot more tactics and manoeuvres now."

"Not much, unless Tommy teaches us some slick barbed-wire-fence drill,"
said Dick. "I'm on my last pair of trousers."

"That _was_ a pretty big fizzle," Tommy said, shaking his head. "And how
they did jolly me at home! Did you ever hear the poem my sister wrote
about it?"

"No; what was it?"

"Well, it was sort of like 'Half a League,' only different, about us,
instead of the 'Six Hundred.' It's pretty good," modestly.

"Can't you say it?" asked Herbert.

"Yes, go ahead, Tommy," chimed in the others.

Tommy blushed. It seemed conceited to recite his sister's verses, and
yet he was genuinely proud of them.

"It's a grind on us, you know," he said, warningly.

"Oh, that's all right; we're used to it; fire away."

Thus pressed, Tommy began:

"'Half a mile, half a mile,
Dust-choked and solemn,
Straight for old Jones's field
Marched the brave column.

"Forward, the Raleigh Red!
Charge for the bull!" he said.
Into the grazing herd
Marched the firm column.

"'Forward the squad brigade.'

"That's wrong, you know," he stopped to explain, "but Alice wouldn't
change it; she said it didn't matter."

"It doesn't a bit," Dick answered. "Go on; it's great!"

"'Forward the squad brigade.'"

Went on Tommy.

"'Was there a man afraid?
Not though the privates knew
Jones's bull's bad manners.
Theirs not to make