And with these words he went out, slamming the door after him.  Tom had made an enemy at the very start of his career as a cadet.

CHAPTER VIII

A MEETING IN THE MESSROOM

In the meantime Dick, Sam, and Fred had been having quite a different experience.  George, Strong, the second assistant at Putnam:  Hall, was not only a first-class teacher, but a calm and fair-minded gentleman as well; and in addition, and this was highly important, he was not so old but that he could remember perfectly well when he had been a boy himself.

“Come this way, my lads,” he said with a faint smile.  “I trust you will soon feel at home in Putnam Hall.  It is Captain Putnam’s desire to have all of his boys, as he calls them, feel that way.”

“What will Mr. Crabtree do with my brother?” asked Dick anxiously.

“I cannot say, Rover.  Probably he will place him in the guardroom until Captain Putnam arrives.”

“I am sure he didn’t do much that was wrong.”

“We had better not discuss that question, my boy.  Come this way; I will conduct you to your room.”

“George Strong showed them into the main hallway and up the stairs to the second story.  Passing through a side hall, they entered a large, bright dormitory overlooking the parade- and the playground.  Here were eight beds, four on either side, with as many chairs, and also a table and two washbowls, with running water supplied from a tower on the roof, the water being pumped up by the aid of a windmill.

“This room has not been occupied this year,” said the teacher.  “Captain Putnam and Mrs. Green, our housekeeper, thought it might be as well to put you in here together, along with Lawrence Colby and Frank Harrington, when they come.  I believe you are all friends, at least Harrington and Colby intimated as much in their letters.”

“They told the truth,” cried Sam.  “This just suits me, and we owe Captain Putnam and Mrs. Green one for doing it.”

George Strong smiled.  Then the smile faded as he remembered how Josiah Crabtree once told Captain Putnam that he did not believe in letting chums room together.  “Place each boy among strangers,” Crabtree had said.  “It will make him more reliant.”  But Captain Putnam had not listened to the crabbed old fellow, and Strong was glad of it.

“Here is a closet, in which each of you can stow his clothing when it is dealt out to him.  Your ordinary suits will, of course, be placed, away for you, for during the academy term, you will as cadets wear only your uniforms.”

“When will I get my uniform?” asked Fred, who was anxious to don his “soldier fixings,” as he put it.

“Tomorrow, if we have any suit on hand that fit.”

“I don’t want a second-handed suit,” put in Sam.

George Strong laughed.  “Don’t worry, my boy; every pupil gets new clothing.  But, many boys are so nearly of a size that Captain Putnam always keeps a dozen or more suits on hand.”