"Here are the papers for Privates Overton and Terry. You are directed to see that the young men go with you on the eleven o'clock ferry to Bedloe's Island. You will report with these recruits to the post adjutant as usual."
"Very good, Sergeant," replied Corporal Dodds, and again the boys were alone with their present guide.
To the raw young recruits it was a tremendously solemn day, but to the corporal, it was simply a matter of dry routine.
"Ten-fifteen," yawned the corporal, at last. "Come along, rookies; nothing like being on time—in the Army, especially."
"Rookie" is the term by which a new recruit is designated in Army slang. It is a term of mild derision.
Corporal Dodds paused long enough at the recruiting office to turn over his key to the sergeant; then he led the way to the street, across to the Sixth Avenue Elevated road, and thence they embarked on a train bound down town.
All the way to the Battery Corporal Dodds did not furnish his pair of recruits with more than a dozen words by way of conversation.
But neither Hal nor Noll felt much like talking. Though either would have died sooner than admit it, each was suffering, just then from acute homesickness, and also from a secret dread that the Army might not turn out to be as rosy as they had painted it in their imagination.
"This way to the Army ferry," directed Corporal Dodds, leading them across the Battery.
Once aboard a small steamer that flew the flag of the Quartermaster's Department, United States Army, Corporal Dodds watched his two young rookies as though he suspected they would desert if they got a chance.