noon
Being of the same opinion , Braxton himself took hold , and the next performance , though somewhat erroneous in many respects , was a slight improvement on the first , though Braxton did not give time for the battery to complete one movement before he would rush it into another . When the officers assembled to compare notes during the rest after the second repetition , Minor growled that this was `` a little better , yet not good , '' which led to some one suggesting in low tone that the major got his positives and comparatives worse mixed than his tactics , and inquiring further `` whether it might not be well to dub him Minor Major . '' The laughter that followed this sally naturally reached the ears of the seniors , and so Brax never let up on the command until the review went off without an error of any appreciable weight , without , in fact , `` a hitch in the fut or an unhitch in the harse , '' as Doyle expressed it . It was high noon when the battalion got back to barracks and the officers hung out their moist clothing to dry in the sun . It was near one when the battery men , officers and all , came steaming up from the stables , and there was the colonel 's orderly with the colonel 's compliments and desires to see Captain Cram before the big battery man had time to change his dress . Braxton 's first performance on getting into cool habiliments was to go over to his office and hunt through the book-shelves for a volume in which he never before had felt the faintest interest , -- the Light Artillery Tactics of 1864 . There on his desk lay a stack of mail unopened , and Mr. Drake was already silently inditing the summary note to the culprit Waring .