"I won't ask to be transferred to-day, anyhow," said Bob, looking down from the clouds. "But there's not much harm in watching them fly, do you think, Lucy? Want to come, William?"
"Yes!" said William, so delighted at the prospect of going around with his brother that he turned a somersault on the grass while he waited to start.
"We'll walk over with you,—shall we, Marian? We're not supposed to go on the field, but we can go as far as the edge of it and bring William back."
Marian looked doubtful and asked, "How far is it?" without much enthusiasm, but Bob said decisively:
"Oh, come along, Marian! Nothing could be far on this little island. You look as though Lucy were starting you on a voyage of discovery. Come on, don't sit home and mope,—no wonder you don't eat anything."
Marian laughed and went slowly in for her hat, while William, overcome with impatience, tugged at his brother's hand and called them all dreadful slowpokes.
The aviation field was of course no great distance away, as the whole of Governor's Island, including the reclaimed land, measures hardly three miles around. A walk across the wide parade to the Infantry Quarters on Brick Row brought them within sight of it, and, turning to the left with quickening footsteps as Bob's interest grew keener, they came in a moment to the long stretch of level, grassy ground that borders the sea-wall.
All the way across the parade, Bob had made Lucy and Marian laugh at his stories of the cadets' desperate efforts to put variety into their hard-working lives. Bob had done his best to help his classmates enjoy life, in lawful as well as unlawful ways, and had written a play to be acted for the amusement of the camp which had been a wonderful success even if it had cost him a good many hours of study. The jokes which he repeated from it were all pure West Point fun, most of them true occurrences and rather unintelligible to an outsider, but Lucy had been up there enough to understand them pretty well, and Marian guessed a good deal, with a sharpness no one gave her credit for.