"Very good, Corporal Davis. I will a.s.sign you to your cot at once."
The new corporal was speedily a.s.signed, after which the sergeant left the room on duty.
"Are there any new recruits here who do not fully understand the care of their bedding?" inquired Corporal Davis pleasantly.
"I do not, Corporal," Hal answered.
"Nor do I," came from Noll.
"Which are your beds, then?" asked Davis promptly.
Within fifteen minutes both Hal and Noll knew how to make beds, and how to fold them away for the day.
Davis proved to be a younger edition of the sergeant. He was not familiar with the recruits, but taught what he was there to teach, and did it with a mingling of firmness and patience.
"From policing of quarters in the morning until tattoo at night," went on Corporal Davis, "you are not allowed to take down your bedding and make up the bed, except under orders for purposes of instruction. At tattoo you may make up your bed and turn in promptly, if you wish. At taps you must have your bed made, and get into it at once. Any man up after taps, except by permission, is subject to discipline."
Supper call came soon after. When the evening meal was finished our young rookies found that they had the evening to themselves. They could stay in squad room, or could go out into the open, if they preferred, though, as rookies, they could not roam as they pleased over the whole post.
Hal and Noll elected to take a stroll after supper.
"Hal," proposed Noll, "I want to ask you something."
"Permission granted," laughed Private Overton.
"Do you think you"re going to like the Regular Army as much as you expected!"
"Yes, siree," replied Hal promptly, and with enthusiasm. "Shrimp was hard to swallow, and he would have made this place purgatory to us. But he was caught, red-handed, and we"ve had a lesson, the first day in the service, that real justice rules always in the Army. The breaking-in as recruits, Noll, is going to be harder than I thought, even if we have such fine men as Brimmer and Davis all the time. But, after we get through that period, and at last know our duties and understand the life, we"re going to be mighty glad that we took the oath and enlisted under the Flag."
"It"s mighty good to hear you say that," replied Noll Terry almost gratefully. "But I"m afraid we have a fearful lot ahead of us to learn.
It will take an awfully long time to learn all we have got to know, I fear."
"A recruit generally stays about three months at the rendezvous," Hal went on. "After that he"s drafted to his regiment, sent away to join it, and then he"s a real soldier at last."
"With still a lot to learn, though," added Noll.
"Yes," Hal a.s.sented. "I imagine that the real soldier always learns as long as he remains in the service."
After a long walk, doubling back and forth over some roads and paths several times, our young rookies found themselves looking at the water by the Jersey end of the island.
"I wonder if we"d be allowed to go over there by the water"s edge!"
suggested Hal. "It would be fine to sit down there and hear the waves lap up against the sh.o.r.e. I don"t want to go in yet, Noll, but I am tired enough to want to sit down."
"Here comes some one in uniform," murmured Noll.
It was a sergeant pa.s.sing, though one the rookies had not seen before.
"Sergeant," called Hal, "may I ask you a question?"
"Of course," answered the sergeant, halting and regarding them.
"We"re rookies; just joined to-day," continued Hal. "We were wondering if it would be any breach of discipline for us to go over there by the sh.o.r.e and sit down near the water for a while."
"There"s no rule against it," replied the sergeant. "But I"d advise you to be back before taps, for it generally takes a recruit some time to get his bed made right."
"Thank you, Sergeant. We"ll be sure to go back in time."
As the sergeant pa.s.sed on Hal and Noll headed for the sh.o.r.e.
"Here"s as good a place as any, Noll," said Hal, as they reached the sh.o.r.e. He pointed to a little depression in the ground. There was a little rise of ground before them as they threw themselves down flat, though it did not wholly shut off their view of the water.
Little waves lapped up monotonously against the beach.
"My, but that"s a sound to make one drowsy," laughed Noll contentedly.
"We mustn"t let it have that effect on us," uttered Hal, half in alarm.
"I am tired, but it would never do to fall asleep here and be late at tattoo. I don"t know what kind of sc.r.a.pe that would get us into."
"Do you know," went on Noll, "this day"s doings all seem like parts of a dream to me. I can"t realize, yet, that I"m a soldier. I suppose it"s because we haven"t our uniforms yet."
"That has something to do with it, of course," nodded Hal. "I thought this a pretty good suit of clothes when I left home, but now I feel actually shabby and fearfully awkward when I look about me at older recruits in their snappy uniform. It"ll really seem like a big load off my mind, Noll, when I find myself in the blue."
"The fellows tell me that a rookie generally has his first issue of uniform in about three days," said Noll. "That won"t be so very long to wait."
"Won"t it, though?" almost grumbled Hal. "Any time at all is too long to wait, when we"ve been dreaming so long about wearing the uniform."
"Why, we"d be a discredit to the uniform at present," smiled Noll.
"Think how awkward we looked and felt, and were to-day. It seemed as though it were going to be simply impossible to learn the first steps of a soldier"s business."
"We"ll learn faster, now," suggested Hal; "now that Shrimp has gone out of our lives."
"_Has_ he gone out of our lives, I wonder?" mused Noll.
"Say," hinted Hal, "I"d have given a lot to have seen Tip Branders drilling under Shrimp."
"I don"t suppose we"ll be very likely to see Tip again, for some years,"
suggested Noll.
In this he was in error, as will presently appear.
"How"s the time running along, I wonder?" was Noll"s next thought.
Hal drew his watch from a pocket, laid it on the ground, and struck a match, screening the blaze with his hands.
"We"ve nearly an hour yet," Overton answered.
"I don"t know but we"d better go back before we have to," ventured Noll.
"Hullo, there"s a boat out there, putting in this way."