Farms were rather scattered in that neighborhood, but occasionally they passed country homes, when all the folks would rush forth to learn what the drumming and fifing meant.

“They are the Putnam Hall cadets,” said one farm woman.  “How neat they look and how nicely they march!”

“Puts me in mind o’ war times, Mirandy,” said her husband.  “Don’t you remember how the boys marched away in them days”?

“Indeed I do, Ira,” answered the woman.  “But that was real, while this is only for fun.”

“Well, I reckon some o’ those lads would make putty good soldiers, were they put to it.  They handle their guns like veterans.”

The cadets marched until ten o’clock and then stopped for a brief rest near a fine hillside spring, where all procured a drink.  Then they moved forward again until noon, when they reached a small village where dinner already awaited them.

“We have covered twelve miles,” said Captain Putnam.  “Eight more, and the day’s march will be over.”

The cadets were glad enough to eat their dinner and take it easy on the porch of the old country hotel at which they had stopped.

“Imagine us marching off to war,” observed Sam.  “How would you like it, Tom”?

“Oh, I don’t think I would complain,” was the answer.  “Anything for a bit of excitement.”

The day’s march was completed long before sundown, and the battalion came to a halt in an open field through which flowed a shaded brook.

The tents were at hand and the students lost no time in putting up the shelters.

Food was supplied for the occasion by a farmer living near, for it was not deemed advisable to unload the cook stoves and build the necessary fires.

The farmer gave the students permission to visit his apple orchard, and this the majority did, returning to the temporary camp with their pockets fairly bulging with apples.

The weather remained clear and warm, so the first night in the open proved very agreeable.  A camp-fire was lit just for the look of things, and around this the cadets gathered, telling stories and singing songs until it was time to turn in.

Sleeping in a tent just suited the Rover boys and none of them awoke until sunrise.  Soon the whole camp was astir, and each cadet took a good washing up at the brook.  Breakfast was supplied by the farmer, and by nine o’clock the column was once again in motion on its way to Pine Island.

“Dot sleeping out in der air vos a funny dings,” said Hans Mueller to Sam.  “I vake up der middle of der night in und find a pig mouskeeter mine toe on alretty!”

“Be thankful that it wasn’t something worse, Hans,” said Sam.  “What would you do if you woke up and saw a big black bear standing beside your cot”?

“I dink I cofer mine head kvick, Sammy.”

“But the bear might chew the cover up.”

“Den I vos rund for mine life und holler like sixty!”