“Don’t worry about that.  You’ll eat and sleep at Mrs. Barrows’s,”—­naming a good, clean boarding-house in the town, the owner of which has a yearly contract with the Government to take care of just such embryo recruits; “in the daytime you can hang around town, and the police won’t bother you if you behave yourself.  If they call you for loafin’ tell them you’re waitin’ to get into the army.”

In a week the district recruiting officer, a young lieutenant, drops in on his regular circuit.  The men who have been accepted by the non-commissioned officer are put through their paces again, and so expert is the corporal in judging good material that none of Steve’s group of eight are rejected.

“All right,” says the corporal when the lieutenant has gone; “here’s your tickets to the training station at Columbus, Ohio, and twenty-eight cents apiece for coffee on the way.  In these boxes you’ll find four big, healthy lunches for each one of you.  That’ll keep you until you get to Columbus.”

One of the new recruits is given charge of the form ticket issued by the railway expressly for the Government; is told that when meal-time comes he can get off the train with the others and for fifty cents buy a big pail of hot coffee for the bunch at the station lunch-room.  Then the corporal takes them all down to the train, tells them briefly but plainly what is expected in the way of conduct from a soldier, and winds up with the admonition:  “And, boys, remember this first of all; the first duty of a soldier is this:  do what you’re told to do, do it without question, and do it quick.  Good-bye.”

    In twenty-four hours Steve and his companions are at the training
    station, have taken the oath of allegiance, and are safely and well
    on their way to full membership in the family of Uncle Sam.

CHAPTER VI

WRITING THE ARTICLE

VALUE OF A PLAN.  Just as a builder would hesitate to erect a house without a carefully worked-out plan, so a writer should be loath to begin an article before he has outlined it fully.  In planning a building, an architect considers how large a house his client desires, how many rooms he must provide, how the space available may best be apportioned among the rooms, and what relation the rooms are to bear to one another.  In outlining an article, likewise, a writer needs to determine how long it must be, what material it should include, how much space should be devoted to each part, and how the parts should be arranged.  Time spent in thus planning an article is time well spent.

Outlining the subject fully involves thinking out the article from beginning to end.  The value of each item of the material gathered must be carefully weighed; its relation to the whole subject and to every part must be considered.  The arrangement of the parts is of even greater importance, because much of the effectiveness of the presentation will depend upon a logical development of the thought.  In the last analysis, good writing means clear thinking, and at no stage in the preparation of an article is clear thinking more necessary than in the planning of it.