Now, let her go again, an' kape at it." The country boy began once more, and this time he bellowed the words so they could be heard for a mile.
The grinning yearlings lost no time in slipping quietly away from that locality, and taking positions at a distance, where they could watch what followed.
All alone in the street in front of his tent stood the blindfolded plebe, bellowing the words at the full capacity of his voice, and repeating them over and over.
In a very few seconds Lieutenant Gordan, the regular army officer at the academy, came marching briskly down the street in the dusk, his face so red that it almost seemed to glow like a light.

Stopping short in front of the lone plebe, he called: "Sir!" Ephraim kept on with "An' there he saw the boys an' gals Ez thick ez hasty poodin'." "Sir!" came sharply from the lieutenant.
Ephraim began the stanza over again, roaring it louder than before, if possible: "Yankee Dewdle came to taown 'Long with Cap'n Goodwin----" "Sir!" cried Lieutenant Gordan.
"Git aout!" snorted the boy from Vermont.

"I'm here ter sing, an' I'm goin' ter fill ther bill, by gum!" Then he began at the first of the stanza, and howled straight through it, for all that the lieutenant spoke to him twice.
In the dusky shadows not far away the cadets were convulsed with laughter they could not suppress.
"Sir!" thundered Lieutenant Gordan, "you are making a fool of yourself!" "Ef you don't shut up an' stop interruptin' me, I'll be gol darned ef I don't kick you clean inter the middle uv next week! You ain't ther feller that sot me ter singin', fer your voice is of a diffrunt color than his.

Naow you keep mum, ur I'll take this handkerchief off my eyes, spit on my hands, an' sail right into you, by thunder!" Then Ephraim began once more: "Yankee Dewdle came to taown 'Long with----" The exasperated lieutenant snatched the handkerchief from Ephraim's eyes, almost bursting with rage.
"If you don't quit this howling, I'll lodge you in the guardhouse!" he declared.
The boy came near smashing the lieutenant with his fist, and then, seeing who it was, he gave a gasp and nearly fainted on the spot.
"Where's them fellers ?" he murmured, looking around for his tormentors.
"By gum! they've slipped! I've bin fooled!" After giving him some sharp advice, the lieutenant sent him into his tent, and departed..