stiff enough fire, right back in the good old Rocky
Mountains," retorted Corporal Hyman. "You don't need any more by way of
training."

"Perhaps not; but I want it, just the same. I'm a hog, ain't I?" laughed
the boyish young sergeant.

"No; you're simply a kid soldier," grumbled Hyman. "All the kids want a
heap of fighting--until after they've had it. When you've been with the
colors a few years longer you'll be ready to agree that three 'squares'
a day and a soft bed at night are miles and miles ahead of desperate
charges or last-ditch business."

"So the 'Warren' is in port from her last trip south," Hal went on. "Oh,
I wonder when we start."

"So do a lot of us," retorted Private Kelly. "But we hope it won't be
soon, Sarge."

"Oh, you coffee-coolers!" taunted Hal good-naturedly.

The Army "coffee-cooler" is the man who is left behind in stirring
times. Uncle Sam's soldiers explain that a coffee-cooler is a man who
won't go forward, in the morning, until his coffee is cool enough for
him to drink it with comfort. Hence a coffee-cooler is a man who is
detailed on work at the rear of the fighting line simply because he is
of no earthly use at the front.

It is not as bad, however, to be a coffee-cooler as a cold-foot. A
"cold-foot" is a soldier paralyzed with terror; he is worse than useless
anywhere in the Army. The cold-foot is ironically asked why he didn't
bring his woolen socks along. If a cold-foot gets into deadly action it
is said that the cold chills chase each other down his spine and all
settle in his feet, so that he is frozen in his tracks. However, a
soldier who betrays cowardice in the face of the enemy may be shot for
his cowardice, for which reason "cold feet" sometimes become cold for
all time to come.

Soldiers there have been who have shown "cold feet" in their first
battle or two, and yet have been among the best of soldiers later on.
But the cold-foot is a rarity, anyway, among the regulars.

"Hello," broke in Kelly, peering out through the rain, "there goes some
good fellow to the rainmakers."

Many of the other soldiers looked. Two hospital-corps men were carrying
a stretcher in the direction of the post hospital. None could make out,
however, who was on the stretcher, as, owing to the downpour of rain,
the unfortunate one was covered with three or four rubber ponchos.

"I hope none of our good fellows is badly hurt," broke in Sergeant Noll
Terry.

"Rheumatism, most likely," gru