"I wonder if we'd be allowed to go over there by the water's edge!" suggested Hal. "It would be fine to sit down there and hear the waves lap up against the shore. I don't want to go in yet, Noll, but I am tired enough to want to sit down." "Here comes some one in uniform," murmured Noll. It was a sergeant passing, though one the rookies had not seen before. "Sergeant," called Hal, "may I ask you a question?" "Of course," answered the sergeant, halting and regarding them. "We're rookies; just joined to-day," continued Hal. "We were wondering if it would be any breach of discipline for us to go over there by the shore and sit down near the water for a while." "There's no rule against it," replied the sergeant. "But I'd advise you to be back before taps, for it generally takes a recruit some time to get his bed made right." "Thank you, Sergeant. We'll be sure to go back in time." As the sergeant passed on Hal and Noll headed for the shore. "Here's as good a place as any, Noll," said Hal, as they reached the shore. He pointed to a little depression in the ground. There was a little rise of ground before them as they threw themselves down flat, though it did not wholly shut off their view of the water. Little waves lapped up monotonously against the beach. "My, but that's a sound to make one drowsy," laughed Noll contentedly. "We mustn't let it have that effect on us," uttered Hal, half in alarm. "I am tired, but it would never do to fall asleep here and be late at tattoo. I don't know what kind of scrape that would get us into." "Do you know," went on Noll, "this day's doings all seem like parts of a dream to me. I can't realize, yet, that I'm a soldier. I suppose it's because we haven't our uniforms yet." "That has something to do with it, of course," nodded Hal. "I thought this a pretty good suit of clothes when I left home, but now I feel actually shabby and fearfully awkward when I look about me at older recruits in their snappy uniform. It'll really seem like a big load off my mind, Noll, when I find myself in the blue." "The fellows tell me that a rookie generally has his first issue of uniform in about three days," said Noll. "That won't be so very long to wait." "Won't it, though?" almost grumbled Hal. "Any time at all is too long to wait, when we've been dreaming so long about wearing the uniform." "Why, we'd be a discredit to the uniform at present," smiled Noll. "Think how awkward we looked and felt, and were to-day. It seemed as though it were going to be simply impossible to learn the first steps of a soldier's business." "We'll learn faster, now," suggested Hal; "now that Shrimp has gone out of our lives." "_Has_ he gone out of our lives, I wonder?" mused Noll. "Say," hinted Hal, "I'd have given a lot to have seen Tip Branders drilling under Shrimp." "I don't suppose we'll be very likely to see Tip again, for some years," suggested Noll. In this he was in error, as will presently appear.