The plebs kept together, and away from the gay throng; unless where some especially happy boy had a cousin on hand. But a great event had marked that day in Camp Hard; for the obnoxious "grey bags" had disappeared, giving place to the full uniform, bell buttons and all complete; and at last the plebs looked like cadets. Magnus Kindred had been as jubilant as anyone over the change, and nobody had given a heartier parting kick to the grey bag. But "a competency is what a man has, and a little more"--and so, then, the young man wanted someone to look at him. How his mother and sisters would have stroked the sleeve of that wonderful dress coat, and admired the buttons: how they would have studied out every turn of braid and quirl of adornment. And Cherry--no, they were not her little hands he seemed to feel on his arm: her hands were just folded in their pretty way, and she stood a few steps off, laughing at the others, and secretly admiring him. She never said so, but what innocent, true-hearted girl can quite keep it out of her eyes, when her hero stands before her? Or, if the eyes sometimes grew shy and turned away, the lips laughed, and told it still. "Bless her dear heart!" Magnus said, almost aloud, his own lips parting in a smile at the sweet vision. But then they closed again firmer than ever. Two thousand miles away (it seemed five thousand to Magnus), and two whole years before he could go there. And a weary sigh measured off both time and space, and found them endless. "Joseph," whispered Mrs. Gresham to her son (they were just opposite Magnus), "who is that boy?" "Kindred--fourth class." "He looks like a first-class fellow," said Mrs. Gresham, watching him, as he suddenly moved off and joined the grey circle around the band. "What a fine face he has! I noticed him yesterday before parade." "Good fellow enough," assented Mr. Gresham, who was just then "noticing" the arrival of Miss Saucy. "But he's so awfully homesick. Blue as Cat's eyes." "Well, you're not obliged to call me 'Cat,' sir, if you _are_ a captain," said the little girl, trying hard to make a pinch tell through the thick cadet cloth. "He's the one that was up among the rocks, Aunt Effie. I told you, and you wouldn't look." "Certainly not," said Mrs. Gresham. "Never try to see anybody who does not wish to be seen, Catty." Miss Catty pouted. "I knew he was a cadet," she said, "for I saw the bell buttons. And I thought cadets _always_ want to be looked at. They act so." There was a burst of laughter from the group that had gathered round Mrs. Gresham. "Oh, what a pity she's not a little older!" cried Miss Flyaway. "Your mainstay ought not to graduate for six years to come, Mrs. Gresham, that Catty might be up to the situation. But then, we poor damsels would have lost him. So it's best as it is. Things are generally best as they are."