“Say, we’re not getting an awful lot of fun out of this,” said Sam, as he opened his arithmetic.
“We didn’t exactly come here for fun,” Harry remarked.
Tom looked critically over the room, and straightened a pillow on his bed, for he knew that inspection was timed for nine-thirty, and he wanted no reproof.
The “tac” came in, looked over everything with a coldly calm and critical eye, while Tom and his chums stood stiffly at attention.
“Make up your beds,” he said to them, as he went out, and they breathed easier.
They would be allowed to have a light until ten o’clock. At that hour taps was sounded—three beats of a drum—at which signal every candidate must be in bed, with lights out. A dark-lantern inspection would follow some time later, and it would not be well for any of the new lads to be caught with a gleam of light in his room, nor must he be anywhere but between the covers, and with his room in perfect order. It certainly was a life of military hardship and exactness from the very start. And, as yet, none of the lads knew whether he was to be a cadet eventually or not.
You may be sure Tom and his two new chums did not oversleep the next morning. They were dressed and waiting for the sound of the reveille gun which presently boomed out, followed by the thunder of drums and the shrill squealing of fifes in the hall below.
“Candidates turn out!” came the command, and the new lads came pouring from their rooms, helter-skelter, anxious not to be late.
“And now for the ordeal,” groaned Tom, as, after breakfast, he and the others, in squads of ten, were marched toward the cadet hospital, where they were to undergo a searching physical examination.
Three army surgeons, grim and grizzled, went over each boy minutely. Their feet were looked at, for the United States government, as well as that of other nations, has found that a soldier to be of value must not be troubled with corns and ingrowing nails. It impedes his marching. And as a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, so a company can march no faster than its poorest walker. No poor walkers are wanted.