After Thanksgiving the cadets settled down to the grind once more, counting the days to Christmas, when they could go home for two weeks.
"I've got to go to Cedarville," said Jack, one afternoon, after the snowstorm had cleared away. "Who will go along? I am going to walk it, just for the exercise."
"I'll go!" cried Pepper.
"So will I!" added Andy. "Where are you going?"
"To the shoe shop and the postoffice."
The three cadets were soon on the way, Fred Century and Bert Field pelting them with snowballs as they left. It was cold but clear, and all were in the best of spirits.
"I see they've got a new man of all work around the school," observed Pepper, as the three trudged on. "I hope Captain Putnam doesn't think of discharging Peleg Snuggers."
"That new man is a sly kind of a fellow," came from Andy. "I was walking through the hallway last evening and he came up behind me as silently as a cat after a mouse."
"I've got my own idea about that man of all work," said the young major, with a faint smile.
"What do you mean, Jack?"