cub of him, but he won't consent to fill
his place. Now, that little beast made a good enough get away
with his studies during the three months before camp. He mastered
all the work of the soldier in ranks. At bottoms Mr. Briggs is
really a very good little boy soldier. But he's so abominably
and incurably fresh that he should have gone to Annapolis, where
there's always some salt in the breeze.

"What has Mr. Briggs been doing now?" asked Dick with interest.

"What doesn't Mr. Briggs do?" sighed Furlong mournfully. "Instead
of sleeping nights, that beast must lie awake, devising more ways
of being unutterably fresh. But now he's contaminating his bunkie,
Mr. Ellis."

"Evil company always did work havoc with good manners," nodded Dick.
"So Mr. Ellis has gone bad, has he?"

"Do you know," continued Furlong severely, "that three mornings
ago, when Jessup, of our class, was dressing at forty horsepower
so he wouldn't miss reveille formation, that he stepped into two
shoes full of soft soap, and had to go out sloshing into line
in that shape, just because he couldn't spare the time to take
his shoes off and empty them?

"Yes," nodded Prescott. "We suspected Haverford, of the first
class, of that, because Jessup, on guard, challenged Haverford
when Haverford was trying to run the guard after taps."

"Haverford nothing," retorted Furlong. "He's above such jobs.
No, sir! This afternoon Jessup ran plumb into Mr. Ellis when
that little beast bunkie of the other beast, Mr. Briggs, was just
in the act of dropping soft soap into the shoes that Aldrich will
wear to dress parade today.

"Where on earth did Mr. Ellis get hold of soft soap?" demanded
Prescott, raising himself on one elbow.

"You're entirely missing the problem, old ramrod!" grunted Furlong
wrathfully. "The question is, how can we possibly soak such habits
out of Mr. Ellis and Mr. Briggs?"

"Perhaps it can't be done," suggested Dick.

"It must be done!" uttered Furlong savagely.

"Well, I can't think of any yearling better suited to the task that
you are, Milesy!"

"One man? or one tentful, isn't equal to any such gigantic piece
of work!" retorted Furlong. "Ramrod, you've got to appoint a class
committee to take these two baboons in hand. It ought to be done
this very night, too. Now, sit up, won't you, and get your
thinking cap on?"

"Have you talked with any of the other men?"

"Yes; and they all agree that a soiree must be given to