At this moment the trumpet-major entered the band-room; and, after talking with the sergeant for a few moments, Linham was instructed to take Jack, Dawes, and Brown to a small room off the band-room, and there to give them an hour’s scale practice, while the trumpet-major instructed the rest in some new harmonies which he had written for the longer and more musical calls. Marching his three trumpeters away to the small room, Sergeant Linham gave them a long address, enlarging upon the stupidness of boys in general and trumpeters in particular, giving some most fantastic information about the notation of the calls, which convinced Jack that no matter how good a trumpeter the sergeant might happen to be, he knew nothing whatever about music, sounding by ear; a fact which puzzled him much at the time, but which he afterwards found to be quite correct. The three boys had to sound the scale up and down on the trumpet, and Jack, who had a good lip and was naturally quick at music, was able to perform fairly creditably, a fact which pleased Linham immensely. ‘You show promise, decided promise,’ he said. ‘Listen carefully to what I tell you and I’ll make a trumpeter of you--ay, and a musician too, ha, hum!’ Jack had his own opinion about that, and sounded the scale over and over. Every time he sounded a note untruly, let it be C, G, D, or anything else, the sergeant pulled him up with a ‘Ha, hum! flat, flat. Squeeze the lips; spit the tongue; you’re sounding B flat!’ Before the practice was over Jack had mastered the ‘Band’ call and ‘Markers’ sufficiently to be able to sound them, after a fashion. In this he was of course much helped by hearing Dawes and Brown sound the calls before him. Brown was rather stupid, and Dawes (who had thick lips) was ‘throaty’ and would certainly never make a first-class trumpeter. These two gentlemen very strongly resented being put back with Jack, and when the parade was dismissed they gave vent to their feelings in unmistakable terms. Jack found Hodson. ‘Well, how did you get on with old Jimmy?’ asked the latter. Jack told him one or two things that had happened in the small room. ‘Oh, that’s nothing,’ said Will Hodson. ‘Jimmy’s a real treat; you’ll see some fun with him before you’ve been with us long.’ Jack was very well pleased with his morning’s work, and felt he should soon master the trumpet and bugle, looking forward to the time when he should be entitled to wear the cross-trumpets and be posted to a troop. There was more practice that afternoon, followed by a visit to the regimental barber, who sheared off all Jack’s locks.