"Well, I don't think much of a teacher that can't explain what he's teaching," mumbled Monty, as he reluctantly obeyed. "Now, Russell, stand next to Humphreys; Baker, stand behind Russell; Skidmore, stand next to Russell." "Goody, I'm in the front rank," giggled little Pete, and Harry Joslyn looked as if here was another case of favoritism that he would have to call the President's attention to. "Now," commanded Si, "put your heels together, turn your toes out, stand erect, draw your stomachs in--" [Illustration: "DRAW YOUR STOMACHS IN. 73] "Look here, Jim Humphreys," grumbled Monty Scruggs, "when he told you to draw your stomach in he didn't mean for you to stick your hips out till you bumped me over into the next Township. I've got to have room to stand here, as well as you." "Silence in the ranks," commanded Si. "Draw your stomachs in, put your little fingers down to the seams of your pantaloons--" "You mean the middle finger, don't you?" queried Monty Scruggs. "That's more natural way of standing." "No, I mean the little finger," asserted Si. "But the middle finger is more natural," persisted Monty. "You can't stand straight with your little finger at the seam. See here." "Scruggs, do as I say, without no words," said Si, and then Monty's face took on an expression of determination to carry the matter to a higher court. "Now, keep your faces straight to the front, and at the command 'Right dress!' turn your eyes, without moving your heads, until you kin see the buttons on the breast of the second man to the right. 'Right dress!'" "There's no man on my right for me to look toward. What 'm I to do?" complained Gid Mackall. "There, you see what come o' putting him in front," exulted Harry Joslyn. "Now, if I'd bin--" "Say, I can't see up to Jim Humphreys' big breast without twistin' my neck nearly off," murmured little Pete Skidmore. "Can't you make him scrooch a little? Jest see him swell up." "What's the use o' linin' on a feller that can't stand still a second?" complained the others. "Great Scott, what a line," groaned Si, walking along, shoving the boys back, and twisting them around, to get them straight. "Crooked as a pumpkin vine in a cornfield. Here, I told you not to turn your heads, but only your eyes. If you snipes wouldn't gab so much, but listen to what I say, you'd git along better. Silence in ranks. Now, try it over again. Faces straight to the front. Eyes cast to the right, until they catch the buttons on the breast of the second man. Right dress!" "Great grief," sighed he, looking at the result. "You wriggle about like so many eels. Might as well try to line up so many kittens. Won't you straighten Up and keep straight?" Then came a renewal of the noisy discussion, with mutual blaming of one another. Si picked up a stick and drew a line in the ground. "Now bring your toes to that line, and keep 'em there."