"For a moment I felt startled as I saw the guns aimed at me, and behind them men with scythes, pantomiming the cutting off of heads.

It struck me uncomfortably at first that all the muzzles should point so directly at my face; afterward I had to work away at the wagon, and thought no more about it; and when, on our return, each of our wagoners affirmed that the guns had pointed at him and no one else, I came to the conclusion that this many-sidedness must be part of the idiosyncrasy of guns--a sort of optical unmannerliness that does not mean much." "We should soon have cut you out if the peasants had been in earnest," replied the lieutenant, benevolently.

"Your cigars are remarkably good." Anton was rejoiced to hear it, and filled his neighbor's glass.

And so he entertained himself, and looked at his principal, who seemed to be unusually inclined to converse with the gay gentlemen around him on all subjects connected with peace and war.

Anton remarked that he treated the officers with a degree of formal politeness, which considerably checked the free and easy tone which they had at first adopted.