missing, gone off to look after the corps train, maybe. If the men
were inconvenienced when there was no issue of ration they scarcely
ever failed to find something to eat in the end; they helped one
another out; the men of the different squads "chipped in" their
resources, each contributing his mite, while the officer, with no one
to look to save himself, was in a fair way of starving as soon as he
had not the canteen to fall back on. So there was a sneer on
Chouteau's face, buried in the carcass of the goose, as he saw Captain
Beaudoin go by with his prim, supercilious air, for he had heard that
officer summoning down imprecations on the driver of the missing
wagon; and he gave him an evil look out of the corner of his eye.

"Just look at him! See, his nose twitches like a rabbit's. He would
give a dollar for the pope's nose."

They all made merry at the expense of the captain, who was too callow
and too harsh to be a favorite with his men; they called him a
_pete-sec_. He seemed on the point of taking the squad in hand for the
scandal they were creating with their goose dinner, but thought better
of the matter, ashamed, probably, to show his hunger, and walked off,
holding his head very erect, as if he had seen nothing.

As for Lieutenant Rochas, who was also conscious of a terribly empty
sensation in his epigastric region, he put on a brave face and laughed
good-naturedly as he passed the thrice-lucky squad. His men adored
him, in the first place because he was at sword's points with the
captain, that little whipper-snapper from Saint-Cyr, and also because
he had once carried a musket like themselves. He was not always easy
to get along with, however, and there were times when they would have
given a good deal could they have cuffed him for his brutality.