[Illustration: THE CONSECRATING BOWL.]

MAKING A NEW COMPANY.

Some weeks after my initiation, I was detailed with an older Brother, to
attend to the formation of a new company in a neighboring county. As
usual, the source of the order was unknown, except that it came from the
captain of our band. The order and detail were announced by our captain,
no comment made, and myself and comrade in the duty started next night,
in obedience to the order, for the location of the new company, in the
adjoining county. He knew the mode of procedure in these cases, and I
left the direction of all to him. We reached the place in the morning,
and did nothing during the day. At night, by his direction, I notified a
well known citizen, in much the same manner I had been notified myself
before initiation, and we started after dark, out of the town. My
comrade, with another citizen, was with me. Reaching a lonely spot in
the country, we turned our horses off the road into a wild tract, and
being far from all habitations, at length stopped in the woods. Here we
separated, I taking my man, and my comrade his, and going perhaps a
quarter of a mile apart. We were both armed with Enfield rifles. The two
men to be initiated on this occasion brought no arms with them. Had they
done so they would have been required to lay them aside before the
initiation commenced.

The mode of initiation of these men, who were to form the nucleus of a
new company, was substantially that already narrated, as experienced by
myself, except, of course, that there was no attendant band, and the
final ceremony of the Consecrating Drink was deferred till half a dozen
others had been initiated, when it was administered to all at the same
time.

The instructions in the formation of a new band or Company, are to
select two prominent citizens at first, as we did in this case, and
after they are initiated they are used to bring in others, until the
band is strong enough to do its own business. A special instruction to
the Brothers detailed for the formation of a new band, is, that if the
persons selected for initiation refuse any of the oaths, or falter in
their devotion to the cause, they are to be killed on the spot. This is
the reason why two Brothers are always sent together, and take but two
for initiation at first, and they are required to be unarmed while the
oaths are proposed. At no time are two persons initiated at the same
place, even when the band nu