Page:Castlemon--Joe Wayring at Home.djvu/66

The boys reached the park long before the procession did, and took up a position near the pagoda in which the president of the village and the trustees were to stand while the line passed in review. When it arrived, the band led the way around the park until it met the advancing column; then it turned inside of it and went around again, and thus the whole line, with the exception of the Toxophilites, was wound up like a coil. The archers kept straight ahead, the boys in the ranks carrying arms, and the captain saluting by bringing his bow to a position that somewhat resembled the "secure arms" of the tactics, until they reached a clear space at the other end of the park which had been reserved on purpose for them. There they halted, and, when the firemen had broken ranks, and the soldiers had been brought to parade rest, their commanding officer put them through the manual of arms and some intricate evolutions in the school of the company, giving his orders to the bugler who stood beside him, and not to the company itself. Ralph and Loren were delighted with every thing they saw, and had many words of