"Fall in lively, there, by twos!" growled Shrimp roughly. "Hurry up! Don't get in the way of the head of B Company!"
To give emphasis to his orders Shrimp seized Hal and Noll each by an arm and swung them into place.
Both recruits went in with flushed faces. Shrimp's treatment had been such as to make them feel uncomfortably "raw." But as the men marched to their seats at the long tables in the mess hall this feeling of humiliation left both boys.
Hal's new friend occupied a seat at their right.
"All the corporals ain't Shrimps," he whispered. "We've probably got one of the meanest corporals in the Army."
"He knows how to make everyone else feel as mean as himself," Hal whispered back.
Then all hands fell to at the meal, which tasted uncommonly good. It consisted of a stew, with plenty of meat and potatoes, and other vegetables in it. There was also bread and butter. Pie and coffee followed. Then the recruit companies were marched out again and were dismissed.
"We have twenty minutes for relaxation now," laughed Hal's new friend, who had introduced himself as Private Stanley. "After that I suppose Shrimp will get you for the setting-up drills. He always has the new men in our squad room. He——"
At this moment Sergeant Brimmer stepped up to the trio as they stood in the open air chatting.
"Overton and Terry, you'll be under Corporal Shrimp's orders after the recreation period. He'll instruct you in some of the first work of the recruit. Go with him when he orders you to turn out."