All the boys with
whom he had been accustomed to associate belonged to it, and in
their interest could talk of nothing else. To him, on the
contrary, it was a disagreeable subject. In the pleasant spring
days the company came out twice a week, and went through company
drill on the Common, under the command of Frank, or Captain
Frost, as he was now called.
Had Frank shown himself incompetent, and made himself ridiculous
by blunders, it would have afforded John satisfaction. But Frank,
thorough in all things, had so carefully prepared himself for his
duties that he never made a mistake, and always acquitted himself
so creditably and with such entire self-possession, that his
praises were in every mouth.
Dick Bumstead, too, manifested an ambition to fill his second
lieutenancy, to which, so much to his own surprise, he had been
elected, in such a manner as to justify the company in their
choice. In this he fully succeeded. He had become quite a
different boy from what he was when we first made his
acquaintance.
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