As I descended the steps of the officers' quarters the men of the four
companies composing the garrison were forming into line before their
barracks. Details from the guard, which had just fired the gun and
hoisted the national colors, were returning to the guard-house, and
the officers were hastening to their places.
At the conclusion of the ceremony I turned again towards my quarters,
and noticed two handsome boys, evidently aged about fifteen and
thirteen, dressed in a modification of the infantry uniform of the
army, and wearing corporals' chevrons. They stood near the regimental
adjutant, and seemed to be reporting their presence to him.
At breakfast, the adjutant chancing to sit near me, I asked him who
the youthful soldiers were.
"They are the sons of Lieutenant-Colonel Burton, Corporals Frank and
Henry," he replied. "They hold honorary rank, and are attached to
head-quarters, acting as messengers and performing some light clerical
work."
"How do they happen to be in Santa Fe?"
"Mother recently died in the East, and the colonel had them sent here
in charge of a tutor who is to fit them for college, I believe.
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