en.

* * * * * *

In the last days of August the furloughed new second class
returned. The young men, after reporting at the adjutant's office at
the required hour, formed and marched to camp, still in "cit."
clothes.

First and third class men rushed out to receive and congratulate the
returned travelers, while the plebes stood shyly by. Their welcome
was not wanted. Then the second class men disappeared into their
tents. They were out again, quickly enough, in white ducks and
the cadet gray blouses. They had taken up the cadet life for two
years more. In the afternoon these second class men swelled the
ranks of the battalion and went through, with all the old-time
fervor, the grand old ceremony of dress parade.

That night came the "Show." This annual show at the end of
August may be either the Camp Illumination or the Color Line
Entertainment. This year the class presidents had asked for the
latter.

As soon as dark came on, the Color Line--the central line through
cadet camp--blazed out with lights. Soon after the band began to
play gayly. Hundreds of visitors, most of them women, and the
majority quite young women, flocked to camp. Along the color
line the guns of the battalion were stacked. Over the center of the
line the colors of the country and the cadet colors were draped
with beautiful effect. Cadets of the three upper classes escorted the
visitors through. The plebes stood by their own tents, answering
when spoken to, which was not often.

After the band had played several selections the musicians moved
up before a hastily constructed stage. Plays or musical farces,
written and acted by cadets, are often presented. In Dick's plebe
summer, however, the choice had been for a minstrel show.

Half an hour before the opening of the performance thirty of the
cadets vanished to a big dressing tent behind the stage.

Before the stage hundreds of seats had been arranged. Every cadet
who escorted ladies was privileged to sit with them. Cadets who
"stagged" it were expected to stand. All of the plebes were in this
number.

Presently the cadets, their faces blacked, came out of the dressing
tent, taking their places off the stage. A regulation first part was
now provided, with the aid of the band playing as an orchestra. In
style it was the minstrel first part with which we are all familiar.
There was this difference: The jokes hit off exclusively local
affairs and cond