rs. Overton, with all a mother's logic where
her son is concerned. "All of you who passed ought to be appointed
officers in the Army."

"Seventeen of us won't be," sighed Hal.

Ever since their first enlistment Hal and Noll had been imbued with the
ambition to rise from the ranks, and become officers. This promotion
from the ranks is not as simple a matter as young people might gain from
reading the stories of some misinformed authors who know nothing of
actual military service. The enlisted man who would rise from the ranks
must first of all be sure that his military record is fine and clean,
and that his reputation for coolness and bravery is firmly established.
But this is only the beginning for the ambitious soldier in the ranks.
He must study almost incessantly, for, when his turn comes to be
promoted to a second lieutenancy, he must be fitted to take a stiff
academic examination and pass it with credit. That examination, in
Sergeant Noll's grim description, "is enough to make a college
professor's hair turn gray." There is no easy way of rising from the
ranks to become an officer.

Hal and Noll, following the method provided by law, had gone up for
their preliminary examinations in the Philippines. Both had succeeded in
passing, though Noll was much nearer the bottom of the list than his
chum. Then, a good many months later, both young sergeants had been
ordered home from the Philippines, that they might undergo their final
examination for commissions. As they were "up" for commissions in the
infantry arm of the service, these two youthful soldiers were sent
before a board of Army officers at Fort Leavenworth. In the interval
between the examinations both young soldiers had studied harder than
ever. They believed that they had passed these final examinations in
July. They had then been ordered to their homes to await the action of
the War Department. It was now well along in August.

"You haven't either one of you appeared on the street in your Army
uniforms since you returned home," remarked Mrs. Overton, presently.
"Noll, why don't you put on your uniform to-night and bring your
mother over here? Then Hal can put on his uniform and you can both take
your mothers out this evening. Don't you suppose that, when American
women give their sons up to the Army, these same women like once in a
while to be seen in public with their sons in uniform?"

"Why, yes, we can do that, of course, Mrs. Overton," Noll agreed