He then took advantage of their attention being awakened to impress upon them the necessity of that preparation. CHAPTER XVII. LIKENESSES. About the period of which I am now writing, the service of a number of our men expired. Where they were good characters they were strongly pressed to re-enlist; but many of them seemed to be satiated with their seven years’ apprenticeship,—among the others, some of my comrade sergeants, who were induced to leave the service in disgust at the conduct of some of their officers, one in particular, whose situation brought him in closer contact with them. He had risen from the ranks to the situation which he then held, by dint of a species of _noisy activity_, which was at that time in great request. It was not enough to bid a man do a thing, but the command must be accompanied with a few oaths, in a stentorian voice, that roused every echo within a mile; and it would have been diverting and ludicrous in the extreme, to a person unaccustomed to the business, to hear an order given by the commanding officer when in the field, ringing along through the chain of underlings, increasing in strength and vociferation, until it reached the quarter for which it was intended. I am not sure whether I have conveyed to the reader a clear idea of what I wish to describe; but if he has ever been along-side a dog kennel, and watched the progress of their sweet voices, from the first note sounded by the master of the band, until the whole pack, tagrag and bobtail, joined in the melodious concert, he will have some notion of what I mean. The officer in question considered this quality so essentially necessary to the character of a non-commissioned officer, that those who did not abuse or blackguard the men under their command, were considered unfit for the situation. So particular was he in this respect, that if he heard of a sergeant being praised by his company, that individual was set down in his mind as a candidate for the first private’s coat that might be vacant. ‘You are one of the good fellows, I believe,’ he would say, addressing the offending non-commissioned officer, ‘Damme, I’ll good fellow ye.’