At the roll call and inspection it was a new thing for Jack to take command of Company C, and for Fred to fill the position of a lieutenant; but both acquitted themselves creditably, and for this received a nod of approval from Captain Dale.

On Sunday evening it had been rumored about that Gabe Werner had decided not to attend the encampment. This rumor had its foundation in the fact that the angular ex-lieutenant had sent a telegram to his father explaining the situation and stating he wanted to come home. In return, however, Mr. Werner commanded his son to remain at Colby Hall, and so, much against his will, Gabe was on hand when the cadets were ready to march away.

"But I ain't going to do anything that I don't want to do," growled Gabe to Bill Glutts. "You just wait and see!"

"Maybe you'll get a chance to make it warm for Jack Rover and his bunch," suggested the wholesale butcher's son.

"You bet!" answered Werner laconically.

The cadets were all a.s.sembled on the parade ground, and the motor trucks, piled high with all of their belongings, as well as the camping paraphernalia, had already left the grounds. There was a final rattle of drums to call any cadets who might still be missing.

"Battalion attention!" commanded the young major, after he had received his orders from Captain Dale.

At once the three companies came to attention.

"Shoulder arms!" came the command a few seconds later.

"Forward--march!"

Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom! went the drums, and the Colby cadets stepped off gaily, while the professors and helpers left behind at the Hall cheered loudly and waved their hands. From the big flagstaff on the campus floated a large American flag, this being run up every morning at sunrise and taken down at sunset.

Soon the drums gave a preliminary rattle, and then the shrill fifes struck up into a lively marching air, and one company after another pa.s.sed out of the Hall grounds and on to the road leading to Haven Point.

"Hay foot, straw foot!" murmured Andy jokingly to Randy, who was marching by his side. "I wonder how our feet will feel after we have covered the eighteen miles we have to do to-day?"

"Oh, that will be all right, I think," answered his twin. "I've done more than eighteen miles in a day, and so have you."

It did not take long for the cadets to reach the outskirts of Haven Point. Their coming was expected, and quite a crowd of town folks were out to see the parade. Some few had put out flags, for all were proud to have such an inst.i.tution as Colby Hall in that vicinity.

The moving-picture theater was decorated with flags from top to bottom, and across the street the enterprising manager had hung a big banner inscribed with the words:

_Good-bye COLBY HALL Have a good time, boys_

Captain Dale was marching beside Major Mason, and as the school came in sight of this banner the major whispered a few words to the elderly military man, who nodded in approval. Then the young major turned and, walking backward, cried:

"Battalion attention! Three cheers for Mr. Felix Falstein!"

The cheers were given with a right good will, and a number of the cadets swung their caps at the manager of the moving-picture theater, who stood in the doorway, smiling at them. The cheer had been totally unexpected, and Mr. Falstein grew exceedingly red in the face. But he bowed and smiled, and kept on bowing, in the meantime waving his hat at the cadets, until they had pa.s.sed up the street.

Leaving Haven Point behind, and with a generous following of small boys, the cadets continued their march by taking to the road leading past Clearwater Hall. Here another surprise awaited them. The girls of the school had strung long lines of colored paper across the roadway, and had decorated the entire front of the school grounds with small flags. More than this, all of the girls were out in a long line facing the roadway, and many of them carried flags and wore red, white and blue ribbons.

"Good-bye! Have a good time!" called out Ruth.

"Don't forget to write!" came from Martha.

"Oh, but you do look nice!" called May.

And then there was such a babble of exclamations that hardly a word of what was said could be understood. And in the midst of this the cadets gave a rousing cheer for Clearwater Hall and everybody connected with that school.

"Oh, but don't they look lovely!" cried May, when the boys had pa.s.sed.

"Did you see Jack at the head of the third company?" she asked of Ruth.

"Why, of course! And he certainly looked every inch a captain."

"I wish I were a boy and could go along!" sighed Mary.

"Oh, I guess we all wish that," declared Ruth. "But come--let us give them another cheer!" And this rent the air just as the cadets reached a turn in the road and pa.s.sed out of sight.

CHAPTER XVII

A NIGHT ON THE ROAD

"This is the life, boys!"

"Ho for a life under canvas!"

"Beats rooming in a school all hollow, doesn't it?"

"Exactly so! And think--we haven't any studying to do. Oh, boy!" and Andy, who was the speaker, felt so light-hearted that he turned several cartwheels on the gra.s.s.

"Say, you look out, Andy, or somebody will grab you and put you in the circus," was Spouter's comment.

The Colby Hall cadets had finished their first day's march and were now in camp on the outskirts of Rackville. They had made the hike without mishap, stopping at noon for lunch along the roadside.

The encampment consisted of three long lines of tents, one for each company. As was the usual practice, the cadets had erected the canvases themselves, doing it with real military precision. They were in the center of a large, sloping field, one end of which bordered the road running into Rackville. The field was a pasture lot belonging to a large farm owned by a man named Oliver Appleby. Appleby owned a dairy farm, and employed about a dozen hired hands.

"I know one thing we'll get here," remarked Fred, after a look around.

"We'll probably get all the milk we want to drink."

And in this surmise he was correct. Captain Dale had made the necessary arrangements with Oliver Appleby, and that evening and the following morning the cadets were furnished with the best of cream and also all the fresh milk they desired.

After the setting up of the tents came supper, and my readers can rest a.s.sured that none of the boys were "backward about coming forward," as Randy expressed it. All were as hungry as wolves, and the amount of food they stored away was simply astonishing. But Captain Dale had received orders from Colonel Colby that the students should be well treated, so everybody got all he wanted.

"Gee! this is so different from a school I used to attend," remarked Fatty Hendry, with a sigh of satisfaction. "At that place we only got about half enough to eat, and many a time I had to go down to the village and buy something extra to keep from starvation."

Having spent so many of their vacations at the old Rover homestead at Valley Brook, the Rovers were much interested in the Appleby place, and after the evening meal Jack and Fred took a stroll up to the cow barns to inspect the herd. Oliver Appleby had a number of prize cattle, of which he was very proud.

"They are certainly beautiful cows," remarked Fred, when they were walking through the shed which housed the best of the herd. "They must have cost a mint of money."

The two young officers were on the point of leaving the cow sheds when, quite unexpectedly, they ran into Jed Kessler.

"h.e.l.lo! I thought I'd see some of you fellers," cried the old dockman.

"Out for your annual encampment, I understand."

"Yes," answered Jack. "How are you these days? Have you got over the effects of that explosion?"