view," and still the captains were implacable. The nearest one, in a
stage whisper, tried to make the major hear "Close order, first." But
all the time Brax was losing more of his temper and Minor what was left
of his head, and Brax came down like the wolf on the fold, gave the
command to "Close order" himself, and was instantly echoed by Cram's
powerful shout "Limber to the rear," followed by "Pieces left about!
Caissons forward!" Then in the rumble and clank of the responding
battery, Minor's next command was heard by only the right wing of the
battalion, and the company wheels were ragged. So was the next part of
the performance when he started to march in review, never waiting, of
course, for the battery to wheel into column of sections. This omission,
however, in no wise disconcerted Cram, who, following at rapid walk,
soon gained on the rear of column, passing his post commander in
beautiful order and with most accurate salute on the part of himself and
officers, and, observing this, Minor took heart, and, recovering his
senses to a certain extent, gave the command "Guide left" in abundant
time to see that the new guides were accurately in trace, thereby
insuring what he expected to find a beautiful wheel into line to the
left, the commands for which movement he gave in louder and more
confident tone, but was instantly nonplussed by seeing the battery wheel
into line to the _right_ and move off in exactly the opposite direction
from what he had expected. This was altogether too much for his
equanimity. Digging his spurs into the flanks of the astonished sorrel,
he darted off after Cram, waving his sword, and shouting,--

"_Left_ into line wheel, captain. _Left_ into line wheel."

In vain Mr. Pierce undertook to explain matters. Minor presumed that
the artilleryman had made an actual blunder and was only enabled to
correct it by a countermarch, and so rode back to his position in front
of the centre of the reforming line, convinced that at last he had
caught the battery commander.

When Braxton, therefore, came down to make his criticisms and comments
upon the conduct of the review, Minor was simply amazed to find that
instead of being in error Cram had gone exactly right and as prescribed
by his drill regulations in wheeling to the right and gaining ground to
the rear before coming up on the line. He almost peevishly declared that
he wished the colonel, if he proposed having a combined review, would
assume comma