[4V50 Gary]

Modernly, his nickname would either be Shorty or Too Tall.

"Some raise the right hand and some the left. The officers look around and correct mistakes. Near the middle of the line and intensely red head shows nigh a foot above the line of other heads on either side, and a red-bearded face looks calmly over the head of the officer, whose station is directly in his front.

'Steady!' commands the Regular Army officer, running his eye sharply along the wavering, ill-dressed line.

'Get down!' he says, as his eye reaches the red head that overtops its neighbors. The red face turns one way and the other in wondering search of what has awakened the officer's displeasure. All the other faces in line turn also.

'You man in the Fifth Company there, with the red beard, get down off that stump!'

A titter runs along the line. Everyone knows what has happened. A shout goes up from the spectators. Some of the officers laugh. The Colonel steps forward and says something in an undertone to the mustering officer. The officer looks foolish There red-bearded face ducks a few inches nearer the line of heads about it. The face is redder than ever. It was not (6'9") Jerry Whetstone's fault that his comrades only came up to his shoulder. Yet, many thousand times on the march and in the camp - before he marches up the Avenue, in grand review, with his unerring rifle all out of line with the pieces of the little squad which are all that remains of the company - will the great, good-natured giant be exhorted to 'Get off that stump!' And not once will the injunction fail to raise a laugh, no matter how weary those may be who hear it."