"Gosh!" exclaimed Billy, "I don't mind carrying a pack that weighs sixty pounds or even eighty; but after a time this pack of mine gets to weigh about two tons, and that seems just a little bit too much." "You told a whole bookful that time," said Tom ruefully. "It is surprising how those packs keep getting heavier all the time. Another half mile, and I think the straps would have been through my shoulders altogether." "Well, there's no use worrying about what might have happened," laughed Frank, "seeing that we've arrived safe and sound. While we're in barracks we'll be able to get three square meals a day, and that appeals to me more, even, than getting rid of the old pack." Frank had hardly finished speaking when an officer approached and called: "Attention!" Then followed roll call, and the boys, together with a number of their comrades, were assigned to a barracks next but one to that in which they had stopped. This, of course, necessitated shouldering the heavy packs once more, but by this time the boys had come to expect things like this, so took it all as a matter of course, and soon found themselves in the quarters that were to be theirs until the order came once more to march. The barracks was furnished with rows of army cots, and the boys dropped their packs at the heads of those assigned to them. Then began the task of unpacking, and by the time that was completed it was almost time for mess. "It's lucky we got our mess kits out before mess call blew," commented Tom. "It would be an awful thing to get caught without them around meal time." "Not much danger of that," said Billy, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. "We've been in the army quite some time now, Tom, and yet I can't call to mind a single time when you weren't Johnny on the spot when the bugle blew for eats." "Say, don't you two fellows go to starting an argument along those lines," interrupted Bart. "When it comes to being chow hounds, I think we're all tarred with the same brush. None of us has ever got a call from the mess sergeant for not being on time." "Well, perhaps you're right," admitted Tom laughingly. "And when you get right down to it, the whole of this man's army seems to be about the same way, so that leaves nothing for us to argue about." Mess kits in hand, they all trooped down to the kitchen and took their places on the line that already was of sizable length. They wound slowly past the cooks, and in course of time the four friends were served and fell to on a savory plate of substantial food. For a short time conversation ceased, the boys giving their whole- hearted attention to the entertainment that Uncle Sam had provided. The food disappeared with astonishing rapidity, and when the last of it was gone Billy exclaimed: "Fellows, we can kick all we want to over army life, but I never had such an appetite in civilian life, and never felt half as good as I do right this minute."