e with which he passed up and down the street, and his contempt for
the enlisted man. Such, my dear mother, is the inflating power of a
little authority.

Well, he has been very busy with the shooting, making a good record
himself, and helping, as all the sergeants did, with the scoring. Needing
a scorer at one of the targets, he took poor Reardon and put him at work
just when his last turn was coming on, and in spite of the fact that he
had already served long hours at the job. Reardon protested, Loretta
promised to let him have his turn, but when the shooting was all over
there was poor Reardon still at the desk, and his last round was not
fired. We noticed that on the way back to camp he was very silent and
cast down, but we did not know why till we were cleaning our guns in the
tent, all the racks being occupied outside. Then I questioned Reardon,
and the facts came out.

All of us were wrathy, but you should have seen Lucy! Tears of anger came
into his eyes as he started up. "I'll go at once and tell the captain!"
Reardon clutched him. "No," said the good fellow. "I hadn't a chance to
qualify. It's perfectly true. Loretta told me so."

"Loretta told you so!" echoed David. He was quite white and shaking at
this instance of adding insult to injury. "By God!"

He was for going at once and complaining, but Reardon wouldn't let him.
"Then," said David, "wait till the hike. If you don't get even with him
then, I will!"

I wouldn't tell this story to David's mother. She might think her son too
sympathetic with an "outsider."

The fellows have been in the habit of cooing at Loretta as he passes
their tents. His pet name precedes him down the street, the coos come
from the shadowed interiors. It has been meant harmlessly. But this story
of Reardon has spread rapidly, and I thought I detected a snarl in the
cooing when Loretta just went by. There is something in David's threat.
Wait till the hike!

This afternoon we had our usual drill and calisthenics, after which I
went swimming in the lake, as I do daily, though under certain
difficulties. The beach is very stony and bruises the feet, and the piers
that have been built at our two bathing places are quite inadequate, both
as accommodating too few men at a time, and next as not going out into
deep water. Perhaps early in the summer the water at the ends may be up
to one's shoulders, but now it is scarcely above the waist, and none but
the cleverest and most ventures