It was three or four days after the arrival of Ned, Bob, and Jerry at Camp Dixton that Bob came hurrying up to his chums with a pleased look on his face. “What is it, Chunky?” asked Ned. “Have you managed to squeeze another mess call into the day’s program?” “No. But we’re going to get into uniforms to-day. I just heard our captain say so,” answered the stout lad. “Now we’ll look like real soldiers!” Bob was right. A few minutes later came the call for the recruits to line up and proceed to the quartermaster’s department to be measured for uniforms. “Now this is something like!” exclaimed Bob. CHAPTER XVI HOT WORDS “What’ll we do with our old suits?” asked Ned, as, with his chums, he walked toward the clothing department, a store in itself. “They go into the discard,” answered Bob, who, it seems, had been making inquiries. “I suppose we can send ’em home and have ’em kept for us until after the war.” “That’s what I’m going to do,” declared Ned. “This is a good suit, though it looks a bit mussy now. I’m not going to throw it away.” “You might as well,” put in Jerry. “Why so? This war may not last as long as we think,” Ned made comment. “And suits, and everything else, will be a lot higher after it’s over. Might as well save what I can. Don’t see why it won’t do me any good.” “Because it won’t fit you,” Jerry returned. “Don’t you know what our captain told us? He said the new uniforms we get will hang on some of us like bags for a while, but when we fill out our muscles by the exercise and drill, we’ll fill out the uniforms, too. “Now your tailor, Ned, and I will say he is a good one, made your civilian suit to fit you. In other words he favored you. He padded the hollow places and so on. But in a couple of months you’ll fill out so that the suit you’re wearing now will look like a set of hand-me-downs from the Bowery in New York.” “Well, I’ll send it home, anyhow,” decided Ned. “Yes, it may come in handy for your mother’s charity work,” agreed Jerry. Before going to the tailor shop, Ned, Bob, and Jerry, with others of the recruits, were measured. These measurements were standardized, so that when each young man went in to get his uniform, the officer in charge merely called off a certain number to designate coat, trousers, hat and so on. The first outfit issued to the boys consisted of one coat, a pair of trousers, a hat, with cord, three pairs of drawers, two pairs of laces, a pair of leggings, a set of ornaments, an overcoat, two flannel shirts, two pairs of shoes, six pairs of socks, a belt, a pair of gloves and three undershirts. The value of each article was set down and varied from a hat cord, marked as worth six and a half cents, to an overcoat, which cost the government $14.50, making a total of about $45 for each young soldier. For this, of course, Ned, Bob, and Jerry paid nothing. A private gets his uniform and food for nothing, but an officer has to buy his.