ers may have a chance yet. I'll bet a picayune that if this
company sees any service at all, it will not be mustered out with the
same officers it has now. Bone your tactics night and day, and then if
there is an examination, you will stand as good a chance as anybody.
Captain, who is going to commission you?"

"I have been commissioned already; that is to say, I have been
authorized by the governor to raise a company of independent cavalry to
be mustered into the State service. That is all right, isn't it?"

"I suppose it is," replied the boy; and then he walked off to find his
father, thoughtfully pulling his under lip as he went.

"What's the matter?" inquired Mr. Gray, as his son approached the place
where he was standing. "Wasn't the election satisfactory? I thought the
best men were chosen."

"I wasn't thinking about that," was the answer. "If we are mustered into
the service of the State, we must of course be sworn in. This State is a
part of the Confederacy; and if the Confederacy calls upon Louisiana for
troops then what?"

"Why, then you would have to go. I reckon," replied one of the planters
who was talking with his father.

"Yes, I reckon we would: and we'd have to take the oath to support the
Confederacy, and that would take us out from under the control of the
State and make us Confederate troops, wouldn't it? It's a sort of
mixed-up mess and I don't see where our independence comes in. But the
boys seem to think it is all right and I suppose it is."

But it wasn't all right, and the sequel proved it.

CHAPTER III.

DRILL AND PARADES.

When the Rangers had broken ranks, which they did without orders as soon
as the fourth corporal had been elected, the captain and his lieutenants
suddenly thought of something and posted off to find Rodney Gray.

"Look here," said the former, somewhat nervously. "What's the next thing
on the programme?"

"Drill, guard-mount and all that sort of thing; but principally drill,"
answered Rodney. "If I were in your place I would send for a copy of the
army regulations without loss of time."

"Where'll I get them?"

"Write to the commanding officer at New Orleans, and the minute they get
here, turn this camp into a camp of instruction with written
regulations, so that every member of the company may know what is
required of him--_reveille_ at five A.M., breakfast at six, sick-call at
seven, inspection o