time to return to the girls' school.

"It's too bad we can't be at home while the girls are there," remarked
Jack to his cousins. He sighed deeply.

"You mean it's too bad you can't be there while Ruth is there," put in
Andy slyly.

"That's the time you struck the nail on the head!" cried Randy.

"Humph! you needn't rap me about it," returned the young captain
briefly. "I guess you'd like to see the girls yourselves."

Now that they knew what they were going to do during the midwinter
holidays, the Rover boys and their chums were eager to have the school
session come to an end. But they did not neglect their studies, nor did
Jack and Fred neglect their duties as officers.

Jack had an essay to write on "The Real Training of a Soldier," and he
spent a great deal of time over this.

"Not but what there is a good deal about it that I don't know," said
Jack to his cousins. "I guess dad could write a better essay than I can
turn out. He's seen some of the real side of a soldier's life."

"What wonderful things our dads will have to tell when they get back,"
said Fred. "That is, if they ever do get back," he added anxiously.

"Oh, they've got to come back, Fred! They've simply got to!" returned
Jack. But his face, too, showed his worry. The Rover boys did not care
to admit it to each other, yet each day every one of them worried over
their parents. It was dreadful to think that one's father, or one's
beloved uncle, might be killed by the Germans, or even badly wounded.

On the Saturday following the bobsled contest the boys assembled once
more on the long Hill, and this time they were accompanied by many of
the girls from Clearwater Hall. Jack and his cousins gave Ruth and the
others many rides down the hill, much to their mutual delight.

"Here comes Bill Glutts with his _Yellow Streak_," cried Fred presently.

"Here's a chance to have another race with him, Jack," said Fatty
Hendry. "He says you won the other race by a foul."

"That's the talk, Jack!" cried Dan Soppinger. "Show him and the whole
crowd that you beat him fairly."

At first Jack did not care to pit himself again against Glutts. But
there was so much talk that at length he consented, but insisted upon it
that the whole course of the slide must be policed by the cadets.

"All right, we'll do that," said Major Ralph Mason, and then ordered all
the cadets he could collect to station themselves on each side of the
slide from the top to where it ran