that was signin’ the rolls.”
“Why, what’s the matter, corporal?” and Isaac looked around in surprise, for until this moment he had believed everything was progressing in proper military fashion.
“Matter?” Corporal ’Lige cried angrily. “Look around and see how these men are comportin’ themselves, an’ then you’ll know. Here are them as should be soldiers, seein’s they’ve signed the rolls, mixed up with citizens till you couldn’t tell one from the other unless personally acquainted with all hands. Then how are they marchin’? Why, a flock of geese couldn’t straggle along in any more ungainly fashion.”
“I shouldn’t suppose it would make any difference how they marched so that they got there in time,” Isaac ventured to suggest timidly.
“Shouldn’t, eh? Then what’s the good of calling themselves soldiers? Why don’t they start out like a crowd of farmers an’ try their hand at taking the fort?”
“Well?” Isaac replied calmly. “Why shouldn’t they? They are not soldiers, you know, corporal, and so long’s the fort is taken why wouldn’t it be as well if they didn’t try to ape military manners?”
The old man gazed sternly at the boy while one might have counted ten, and then said in a tone of sadness:
“It’s a shame, Isaac Rice, that after bein’ with me all these years, an’ hearin’ more or less regardin’ military matters, you shouldn’t have more sense.”
“Why, what have I said now, corporal? Is it any harm to think that farmers might take a fort?”
“Of course it is, lad. If anything of that kind could happen, what’s the use of having soldiers?”
“But I suppose it is necessary to have an army if there’s going to be war,” Isaac replied innocently, and this last was sufficient to completely fill the vials of the old man’s wrath.
That this pupil of his should fail at the very first opportunity to show a proper spirit, was to him most disappointing, and during the half-hour which followed he refused to speak, even though Isaac alternately begged his pardon for having been so ignorant and expressed regret that he had said anything which might give offense.
During all this while the citizens of Pittsfield were following the recruits in a most friendly manner, believing it their duty to thus cheer those who might soon be amid the carnage of battle, and perhaps not one realized how seriously he was by such method offending Corporal ’Lige.
Isaac’s father was among this well-intentioned following, as were two of the lad’s brothers, and when these representatives of the Rice family, having walked as far as the head of the household deemed necessary, were about to turn back, they ranged themselves either side of the corporal and his pupil, in order to bid the latter farewell.
“I expect you will give a good account of yourself, Isaac, when it comes to fighting, and I feel all the more confident in regard to it because you are under the wing of a man who knows what it is to be a soldier.”
This compliment was intended for Corporal ’Lige as a matter of course; but he paid no other attention to it than to say:
“If the lad had profited by my teachings, he’d know that he has no right to talk with outsiders while he’s in the ranks.”
“That’s exactly it,” Mr. Rice replied, wholly oblivious that the corporal was administering what he believed to be a most severe rebuke. “That is exactly it, my son, and you will do well to remember that you cannot fail in your duty so long as you take pattern from the corporal.”
The old soldier gave vent to what can be described only as a “snort” of contempt; and the boy’s sorrow was as nothing compared with what it had been when bidding good-by to his mother.
After the young Rices had turned their faces homeward in obedience to the orders of the elder Rice, Isaac gave more heed to copying the movements of the corporal, thereby atoning in a certain measure for his previous injudicious remarks.
The boy firmly believed that no more able soldier could be found in all the colonies than this same Corporal ’Lige, and had any person ventured to remark that the expedition might be as well off without him, Isaac would have set the speaker down as one lacking common sense.
Take the corporal out of the ranks, and young Rice would have said there was no possibility either Crown Point or Ticonderoga could be captured.
Thus it was that an order from Colonel Allen, Colonel Easton, or Seth Warner was as nothing compared with one from Corporal ’Lige, in the mind of Isaac Rice; but there were many in the ranks who did not have such an exalted opinion of the old soldier, and these were free with their criticisms and unfavorable remarks, much against the raw recruit’s peace of mind, as well as the corporal’s annoyance.
It was because of these light-headed volunteers, who saw only in this expedition a novel and agreeable form of junketing, out of which it was their duty to extract all the sport possible regardless of the feelings of others, that Corporal ’Lige withdrew himself, so to speak, from his comrades, and barely acknowledged the salutes of any save his superior officers.
At the end of the second day’s journey he refused to go into camp with them; but applied to the captain of his company for permission to advance yet a short distance further, at which point he could join the troops when they came forward next morning. It was known by all the expedition, even including those who were making the old soldier the butt of their mirth, that he was held in high esteem by Colonel Ethan Allen, and the request, although irregular, was readily granted, after a warning against the perils attendant upon such a course.
“It is better you stay with the troops, corporal,” the captain said kindly, “although I have no hesitation in saying you are free to do as you choose.”
“And I do not choose to remain in the encampment for all the young geese – who fancy that by signing the rolls they have become soldiers – to sharpen their wits upon, therefore I would halt by myself, taking only the recruit I claim as my own, for company.”
“I will have a care that you are not annoyed again,” the officer replied in a kindly tone; but this was not to Corporal ’Lige’s liking.
“If a soldier can only keep his self-respect by running to his superior officers like a schoolboy when matters are not to his fancy it is time he left the ranks. After we have smelt burning powder I fancy these youngsters will keep a civil tongue in their heads, and until then I had best care for myself.”
This was such good logic that the captain could oppose no solid argument against it, therefore the old soldier received permission for himself and “his recruit” to form camp wherever it should please him, provided, however, that they remained in the ranks while the command was advancing.
Not until after the matter had been thus settled did the captain take it upon himself to warn the corporal that it was not wholly safe to thus separate from his companions.
“It is well known that our movements are being watched by both Tories and Indians,” he said in a friendly manner, such as would not offend the obstinate old soldier, “and you can well fancy that they would not hesitate to do some mischief to any of the expedition whom they might come upon alone.”
“I can take care of myself, and also the boy,” Corporal ’Lige replied stiffly, as he saluted his superior officer with unusual gravity, and with this the subject was dropped.
Then the old man
