VOLUNTEER TROOPS AT LARNED 



"Yes, yes. That's the way you do in the regu- 

 lars, I suppose; but, you know, we ain't so par- 

 ticular in the volunteers, and I find it's best to 

 keep on good terms with my first sergeant 'cause 

 he'll make trouble for me if I cross him." 



"Well, excuse me; I forgot myself," I replied 

 with ill-concealed disgust. "I wasn't employed 

 by you to teach you discipline. But if you can 

 persuade your sergeant to come over, I'll see if I 

 can interest him in these papers." 



But the sergeant refused to take instructions 

 from "one of them swell-headed regulars who 

 think they know it all." The company clerk, 

 however, cheerfully placed himself under my tute- 

 lage and picked up the work rapidly. 



By taking invoices of the property Lieutenant 

 Lang had on hand and comparing them with the 

 invoices of what he had received, I soon found 

 what was deficient. I then set his men to work 

 looking about the post and gathering up, from 

 among the rubbish and castaway property aban- 

 doned by the outgoing garrison, every old article 

 of quartermaster's and ordnance stores and camp 

 and garrison equipage that could be found. I 

 then asked the lieutenant to call on the command- 

 ing officer for a board of survey, who inspected 

 and condemned the stuff and ordered it burned, 

 thereby relieving Lang of his accountability for it. 



There was still a considerable shortage of arms 

 and things that I could not pick up about the post 



203 



