The colonel's face flushed slowly when he discovered the true possession of the young Irishman, and then in a good-natured way he struck the block of wood with his sword and turning to his men said, "Sold! I have been sold, and shall have to own up to it. You young rascal," he said, once more addressing Dennis, "I have half a mind to send you to the guard-house on general principles. You had no business to play such pranks as that." "But, Colonel," protested Dennis demurely, "I didn't want to play it. I did my best not to, but you ordered me to, so you see I had to. I was just bringing in a present." "A present?" demanded the colonel, as the men laughed again. "A present? To whom were you going to give that block of wood?" "Shure I was going to give it to the sutler," replied Dennis. "I had an idea that it would match his head." The boys dispersed, pleased that the colonel had been so lenient with them and that their only punishment had been the loss of the articles which they had secured in their expedition. When the two young soldiers were again in their tent, Dennis said to Noel, "That little sutler, Levi, is to blame for all this trouble. He thought the boys would be after buyin' not so much of him. He's the first of all the men who put us on hard tack that was 'cut and dried long before Noah died.'" And Dennis began to sing noisily,-- "My rations are S.B., Taken from porkers three Thousand years old; And hard-tack cut and dried Long before Noah died,-- From what wars left aside Ne'er can be told." "I'm afraid the colonel won't be so easy next time," suggested Noel. "Don't you worry about that," said Dennis. "The next time there won't be any Levi to carry tales to him. I have got it all fixed up in me mind. We're going to make Levi a good soldier." "You can't do that," laughed Noel, "unless you begin at his feet." "That's where we propose to begin." "What are you going to do?" "Noel, me boy," whispered Dennis, "I can't tell you all the details, but we're goin' to have a sham fight here between the Forty-sixth and the Fifty-first, and I shouldn't be one bit surprised if Levi Kadoff's supplies were somewhere near the middle of the battle-ground." Noel laughed and thought no more concerning the statement of his comrade until the following day when to his surprise he discovered that there was, indeed, to be a sham battle between some of the men of the two regiments to which Dennis had referred. An interested spectator he watched the two regiments when they formed in line near the tent of the sutler, Levi Kadoff. Nor was he the only spectator, for near by were assembled many of the men, all apparently aware that something of unusual interest was about to occur.