For Ned and Hal, the first thing to do was to get uniforms. Until they had some trappings they could not feel as though they amounted to much.
Room 6, Shinn Block, fairly was swarming with persons after uniforms. In one corner was a pile of capes, near by was a stack of caps, and in another corner were sheaves of torches. Evidently all that was necessary to do was to walk up, pick out an outfit, and leave.
The two boys sidled in, and had just seized upon a cape apiece when they were interrupted by a man who from beside the door was overseeing things.
“Hey, you kids! What are you doing with those capes?” he demanded, gruffly.
Ned and Hal, startled and abashed, dropped their spoils.
“We’re going to march,” stammered Ned.
“Oh, that’s all right. It’s Will Miller’s boy,” explained somebody in the room, coming to the rescue. “Let him march.”
“And isn’t that young Lucas?” queried somebody else. “Is your father going to march with us to-night, too, sonny?”
“No, he isn’t!” retorted Hal, hotly. “He’s going to be in a lots bigger parade than this, next week!”
Amid the teasing laughter which greeted this sally the boys snatched cape and cap and torch, and fled lest yet they might be stopped.