."

There was a roar of laughter at this.

"Mustn't mind a little thing like that," said Sam, and he sat down on
the edge of his cot to put on his shoes. "Great Scott, what's this"?

He had forced his foot into one shoe and now withdrew it covered with
soft soap.

"Haw! haw!" roared Tubbs. "Rather fancy the laugh is on you now,
Rover."

"That's a fact," muttered Sam, and began to clean out the shoe as
quickly as he could.

Several other small jokes had been played, showing that the cadets were
"tuning up," as Major Larry expressed it.

"I guess I'll have my hands full before the week is out," he said to
Dick, in private. "Keeping order will be no fool of a job."

"Well, you must remember that you liked to have your fling too, when
you were a private, major," answered the captain of Company A.

The cooking detail were already preparing breakfast and the aroma of
hot coffee floated throughout the camp. Immediately after roll-call
breakfast was served, of fruit, fish, eggs, bread, and coffee, and the
cadets pitched in with a will.

"Gives one an appetite to live out in the open," said Lieutenant Tom.

"As if you didn't carry your appetite with you wherever you go,"
grinned Sam.

"Silence, Private Rover, or I'll fine you half a day's pay," flung back
Tom with a similar grin.

"My, but we are some pumpkins," went on Sam, squaring his shoulders.
"Wonder how soon we'll get to be a general."

"Perhaps at the next general election," suggested George Granbury.

"Lieutenant Granbury is fined a peanut for punning," said Tom severely.
"Don't do it again and the fine will be remitted."

"That's a fine way to do," murmured George, and then Sam shied a tin
plate at him.

As soon as the meal was over there was a drill lasting half an hour,
and then the cadets were permitted to do as they pleased until noon.
Some went boating, some fishing, while others took a swim, or simply
"knocked around" as Sam expressed it.

"I shouldn't mind a swim," said Tom. "Who will go in with me"?

A dozen cadets were willing, including Dick, Larry, and Fred Garrison.
As it was off time, Larry, even though major, did not feel it necessary
to "stand on his dignity."

"I'm just going to be as I've always been," he told the others. "If I
can't be that, I don't want to be major."

Several tents had been erected close to the water's edge, where the
cadets might undress and don their bathing suits. Tom was the first
ready, and with a run