"No talking in the ranks--'tis finable--and 'twon't be permitted. We're under martial law, and that's _very sum_'ry, Mr. Turtle, very _sum_'ry! And to turn a circle," continued the Squire, "is one-er the most complercated revolutions ever performed by the Hos Guards. I hereby appoint Mr. Beagle the centre pin. Mr. Turtle will head the column--Mr. Beagle will stand still, and the column will sweep round him, to the point from which they started. Heads up! Shoul-_der_ arms! Ev'ry man to his post!"
The captain drew his sword, and cried terribly, "For-_erd_, men!" Turtle ran--the man behind him ran--and all ran, helter-skelter, some whooping, some groaning, and in their sweep they took in a score of ragged boys, and hurled them upon Aunt Sonora and Mrs. Longbow, who keeled over backwards in their chairs, their petticoats fluttering, in their somerset, in the face of the whole company. The Squire, forgetting his own position, when he saw the position of his second wife, hastened to her rescue, set her up, and pointed with his sword to the road, and she and Aunt Sonora pushed desperately for the fence, their hair streaming behind them, bellowing "Murder!" while the company brought up in the shape of a pot-hook, having about half described the circle,--Beagle, the "centre-pin," crying to them to "come on!"
"H-ll!" involuntarily ejaculated the Squire, as he looked upon the confusion.
"That's swearin'," said Ike from the ranks, "and is agin the statert."
The Squire explained. "He didn't swear as a justis', he swore as a captin', and captins allers swore on the field-er action--but he'd take that 'ere oath back.--What do you s'pose the Hos Guards would think of such a revolution as that 'ere,"--continued the Squire, looking at the huddle before him, "wouldn't _they_ swear? Do you call that a circle?--Every man to his post in a line!" and the company straggled back into a column.
Aunt Sonora sat upon the fence, panting with fright, and fanning her flushed face with her cotton handkerchief. She told Mr. Longbow that "she know'd that somebody'd be kill'd afore night--these sogers were so _ker_-less--everybody was so hurly-burly, they'd run anybody right down, and stomp on 'em; and if she hadn't got out-er the way jist as she did, she would have been a dead woman, she know'd."