tamper with me. I 'll teach you--" the adjutant
threatened.

"Ain't a-goin' t' tamper with ye a minute," said D'ri. "If ye
don't set down here quick, I 'll put a hole in ye."

"Lunatic! wha' d' ye mean?"

"I mean t' turn ye out t' grass a leetle while," D'ri answered
soberly. "Ye look tired."

The officer made at him, but in a flash D'ri had knocked him down
with his musket. The adjutant rose and, with an oath, joined the
others.

"Dunno but he 'll tek the hull garrison 'fore sunrise," he
muttered. "Let 'em come--might es well hev comp'ny."

A little before daylight a man sick in the hospital explained the
situation. He had given D'ri his orders. They brought him out on
a stretcher. The orders were rescinded, the prisoners released.

Captain Hawkins, hot to his toes with anger, took D'ri to
headquarters. General Brown laughed heartily when he heard the
facts, and told D'ri he was made of the right stuff.

"These greenhorns are not nice to play with," he said. "They're
like some guns--loaded when you don't expect it. We 've had enough
skylarking."

And when the sick man came out of hospital he went to the
guard-house.

After we had shown our mettle the general always had a good word
for D'ri and me, and he put us to the front in every difficult
enterprise.

VI

We had been four months in Ogdensburg, waiting vainly for some
provocation to fight. Our own drilling was the only sign of war we
could see on either side of the river. At first many moved out of
the village, but the mill was kept running, and after a little they
began to come back. The farms on each side of the river looked as
peaceful as they had ever looked. The command had grown rapidly.
Thurst Miles of my own neighborhood had come to enlist shortly
after D'ri and I enlisted, and was now in my company.

In September, General Brown was ordered to the Western frontier,
and Captain Forsyth came to command us. Early in the morning of
October 2, a man came galloping up the shore with a warning, saying
that the river was black with boats a little way down. Some of us
climbed to the barracks roof, from which we could see and count
them. There were forty, with two gunboats. Cannonading began
before the town was fairly awake. First a big ball went over the
house-tops, hitting a cupola on a church roof and sending bell and
timbers with a crash into somebody's dooryard. Then all over the
village hens began to cackle and chil