They went with him through the armory and saw some of the treasured relics that the regiment cherished as its most priceless possessions.
There were the old flags, blackened with powder, torn with bullets, that had gone through the fire of Antietam and Gettysburg and Chickamauga.
The boys took off their hats as they stood before them.
There were the cannon that had thundered on the banks of the Rapidan and in the valley of the Shenandoah. A glass case covered a letter of commendation for a wild charge that had saved the day at Shiloh. There was the blood-stained hat of the colonel who had fallen while leading the regiment at Gaines' Mill.
"That was the kind of stuff the regiment was made up of in the old days," said Billy, proudly.
"It's a glorious record," said Frank, reverently. "And now it's up to us to show that what the old boys did in Virginia, the young fellows are going to do again in France!"
CHAPTER VIII
OFF TO CAMP
Now that the momentous step had been taken, the boys buckled down to work—work of the hardest and most strenuous kind.