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"Humph! all up here, and along the upper part of the tent," grumbled the bandmaster; and then his attention was taken off by the appearance of Jerry through the curtain of canvas opening upon the orchestra. "Lieutenant Lacey, sir, says the band needn't play no more during supper; and there's refreshments all ready in the little tent outside." "Oh, thanks!" cried Wilkins.
The bandmaster made no remark until they had sounded some half a dozen calls as he named them, and then he said, "The lads have a vera gude idea of it, Captain Manley. They are steadier and clearer than mony a one of the boys already. Will ye begin at once, lads, or will ye wait till ye get your uniform?" "We had rather begin at once," the boys answered together. "Vera gude.
And now the bandmaster perceived the occupant of the bed, a palsied, bloodless phantom of the past an inert, bedridden, bony thing that looked dead until its deep eyes opened and fixed themselves on him. "This is a Union soldier, grandfather," she said, kneeling on the floor beside him. And to the bandmaster she said in a low voice: "Would you mind taking his hand? He cannot move."
Isaac Herschel, known to the world as being the father of his son, was a poor man, depending for support upon his meager salary as bandmaster to a regiment of the Hanoverian Guards. At the garrison school, taught by a retired captain, William was the star scholar. In mathematics he propounded problems that made the worthy captain pooh-pooh and change the subject.
Captain Manley carried out these instructions, the boys were duly examined by the surgeon and passed, and in half an hour became His Majesty's servants. "Now, boys," Captain Manley said as he crossed with them to the quarters of the bandmaster, "you will have rather a difficult course to steer, but I have no doubt you will get through it with credit.
Katrine," he called into the kitchen, "get hold of the Bandmaster quick, and tell him to come along give him plenty of drink too, for he must be thawed before you get anything out of him." "No fear about that," said Lars Peter airily, putting a ten-crown piece on the table, which the inn-keeper quickly pocketed. "That's right, old man that's doing the thing properly," said he appreciatively.
I put the battalion through up to 600 yards; the course was carried out according to the school of musketry regulations, and I rendered all the returns in manuscript, the report showing fair average shooting. There was a band of twenty under Bandmaster Harry Walker, late of the Imperial 7th Fusiliers. It was in good shape and kept busy, for bands were scarce in the city at that time.
Suffice it to say, whether from pure conceit or better things, the little company grew till it reached a score, and, under a Portuguese bandmaster, touched a high level of perfection, playing both on brass and strings with taste and spirit.
Before every ball, Colonel Fortescue's aide, Conway, a serious young lieutenant, delivered the Colonel's orders that there was to be no tangoing or turkey-trotting or chicken-reeling or "Here Comes My Daddy" business in that ball-room. Moreover, Neroda, the bandmaster, had orders if any of these dances, abhorred of the Colonel's heart, were started the music was to stop immediately.
At that moment he became conscious that the bandmaster was standing stiffly close by, still keeping an eye upon him, and removing his military cap, revealing a shiny billiard-ball-like head, which he began to polish softly with a silk handkerchief.
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