Page:Into Mexico with General Scott (1920).djvu/178

 XII

AN INTERRUPTED TOILET

The orders were to clean up, as if for inspection and parade. General Worth was sending word forward to the city council of Puebla, giving notice that he intended to occupy the city at once. Evidently he wished to march in in style to make a showing, for Puebla was the second largest city in Mexico.

Jerry played in luck. He had kept his new uniform in the best of shape. It would get shabby soon enough, like the other uniforms. His drum shone. So he was done with his prinking early. The men generally were taking their time, to rest and munch fruit. When he asked permission to go for a stroll, Drum Major Brown said, having eyed him and seen nothing wrong:

"All right. Report in thirty minutes."

Tommy Jones, another smart drummer boy, from Company I, joined him.

"What you lugging your drum for, Jerry?"

"So nobody'll spatter mud on it, of course."

"You're a greenie yet," Tom asserted. "When you've carried a drum as long as I have you'll be mighty glad to drop it."

"Well, I sha'n't leave it, just the same. Some of those fellows would put up a job on me to see how much I'll stand."

Jerry continued, with his precious drum. The mud-fenced corral was an odd sight as he and Tom