"I suppose we've got to be comrades, now, but I don't like that pair
an over-lot," Bert explained.

"Odd! Most of the new plebes like Prescott and Holmes all the way
up, and then all the way down again," murmured Anstey seriously.
"For myself, I don't know any two fellows in the new lot
that I like better."

"Oh, I guess they're all right in a good many ways," admitted Bert
slowly. "Only we never managed to hitch--that's all. You asked me
if I came from the same place. I used to live in Gridley, but
I--er--well, I went away to Fordham to another school. My father had
a summer place in Fordham, and he took up his voting residence in
Fordham, though spending a good part of his winters in Gridley.
That's how I'm credited to Fordham, not Gridley."

"Thank you for telling me," nodded Anstey. "I had just been
wondering if it were not crowding things a bit to send three young
men all from Gridley."

"I'm not only not from Gridley, but I came in as an alternate,
anyway."

"How are you getting on with Corporal Spurlock?" asked Anstey.

"That fellow? Oh, hang him! Spurlock drives me wild. I came
within a hair's breadth of applying to the commandant of cadets for
a new instructor in drill. Only you told me that no heed would be
paid to such a request from a new plebe."

"I should rather say not," grinned Anstey. "However, you'll be
through the prelim. grind soon, and then you'll be admitted to a
company in the battalion."

"I'm fitted for it now," growled Bert.

"You won't get into a company, though, until Corporal Spurlock
reports you as fitted."

"That fellow is the most rascally tyrant I ever saw anywhere,"
growled Bert, picking up a text-book on mathematics.

By this time the season of outdoor drills and daily dress parade had
arrived. This particular afternoon, however, in the latter part of
March, a heavy, blinding snowstorm had come along. Cadets were
nearly all in barracks, therefore, and those who had the most need
were studying hard.

"I've boned math., boned French, boned English," muttered Anstey,
at last. "Now, I think I'll go over and bone Prescott and Holmes.
Feel like going along with me!"

Bert frowned somewhat. He didn't care to "approve" of the two
Gridley boys too much. But it was so deadly dull in this room that
Dodge didn't care to be left alone, either.

"Oh, I'll go," nodded Dodge, closing a book with a snap and rising.
"But I'd like it even better if you had some one else in mind to