alifornia, the half-orientalism of San Francisco and the
Pacific Ocean with its world-old mystery of untamed immensity should fill
each day with a newer interest; or that the conditions of soldier life at
Camp Merritt beside the Golden Gate, to which the eager-hearted, untrained
young student from the Kansas prairie brought all his youthful enthusiasm
and patriotism and love of adventure, should wound his spirit and test his
power of self-control. Small wonder, too, that the Twentieth Kansas
Regiment, poorly equipped, undrilled, and non-uniformed still, should make
only a sorry showing among the splendid regiments mobilized there; or that
to the big, rich City of San Francisco the ragged fellows from the
prairies, who were dubbed the "Kansas Scarecrows," should become the
byword and laughing stock among things military.

One neglect followed another for the Kansas Twentieth. The poorest camping
spot was their portion. The chill of the nights, the heat of the days
oppressed them. The filth of their unsanitary grounds bred discomfort and
disease.

But no military favors were shown them, and the same old stupid jests and
jibes of the ignorant citizen of the other states were repeated on the
Pacific seaboard. When the thirtieth of May called forth the military
forces in one grand parade the Twentieth Kansas was not invited to take
part.

For Thaine Aydelot, to whom Decoration Day was a sacred Sabbath always,
this greatest of all indignities cut deep where a man's soul feels
keenest. And when transport after transport sailed out of the San
Francisco harbor, loaded with regiments for the Philippines, and still the
Twentieth Kansas was left in idle waiting on the dreary sand lots of Camp
Merritt and the Presidio reservation, the silent campaign that really
makes a soldier was waged daily in Thaine and his comrades.

"Don't complain, boys," Captain Clarke admonished his company. "We'll be
ready when we are called, and that's what really counts."

Other commanders of the regiment gave the same encouragement. So the daily
drilling went on. The sons of the indomitable men and women who had
conquered the border ruffian, the hostile Plains Indian, and the
unfriendly prairie sod, these sons kept their faith in themselves, their
pride in the old Kansas State that bore them, and their everlasting good
humor and energy and ability to learn. Such men are the salt of the
earth.

Todd Stewart made a brave struggle, but his slide on t