," put in Sam, with
a wink. "I thought that steak was rather tough."

"Shoo yourself with such a joke, Sam," came from Fred Garrison.

"Have you really lost your shoe, Tubby, dear?" sang out Songbird
Powell, the so-styled "poet" of the academy. And then he started to
sing:

"Rub a dub dub!
One shoe on the Tubb!
Where can the other one be?
Look in your bunk
And look in your trunk,
And look in the bumble-bee tree!"

"Whoop! hurrah! Songbird has composed another ode in Washtub's honor,"
sang out Fred Garrison. "Washtub, you ought to give Songbird a dollar
for that."

"Thanks, but I make not my odes for filthy lucre," same from Powell,
tragically, and then he continued:

"One penny reward,
And a big tin sword,
To whoever finds the shoe.
Come one at a time,
And form in line,
And raise a hullabaloo!"

And then a shout went up that could be heard all over the encampment.

"I'll lend you a slipper, Tubbs," said little Harry Moss, whose shoes
were several sizes smaller than those of the aristocratic cadet.

"Somebody get me a shingle and I'll cut Tubstand a sandal with my
jackknife," came from Tom.

"I'll shingle you!" roared William Philander Tubbs, and rushed away to
escape his tormentors. In the end he found another shoe, but it was not
the one he wanted, for that had been rolled up in the blankets by Tom
and was not returned until Putnam Hall was reached.

Drums and fifes enlivened the way as the cadets started for the
military academy. The march was to take the balance of that afternoon
and all of the next day. During the night they were to camp out like
regular soldiers on the march, in a big field Captain Putnam had hired
for that purpose.

The march did not take the cadets through Oakville, so the Rover boys
did not see the friends they had made in that vicinity. They headed
directly for the village of Bramley, and then for another small
settlement named White Corners,--why, nobody could tell, since there
was not so much as a white post anywhere to be seen in that vicinity.

"It's queer how a name sticks," declared Tom, after speaking of this to
his brother Dick. "They might rather call this Brown Corners, since
most of the houses are brown."

At the Corners they obtained supper, which was supplied to the cadets
by the hotel keeper, who had been notified in advance of their coming.

While they were eating a boy who worked around the stables of the hotel
watched them curiously. Afterwards