Then they broke camp, and marched into barracks, and that was a help, for work began at a rate that left scant time for lawless play. Magnus Kindred had studied before, studied hard, but never with the exactness of drill and discipline and pressure that now filled every day. Breakfast, recitation, study, dinner, study, recitation, drill; then dress parade, supper, and study. Some of the plebs resigned and went home, others talked gloomily of being "found" in January; before which wintry fear homesickness itself gave way. And again others drew the buckles of their armour tight, looked well to their stirrups, and went at the difficulties, lance in rest. [Illustration: THE BARRACKS IN WINTER] XIII A BLUE CHRISTMAS No age, no race, no single soul, By lofty tumbling wins the goal. The steady pace it keeps between; The little points it makes unseen; By these, achieved in gathering might, It moveth on, and out of sight: And wins, through all that's overpast, The city of its hopes at last. --MRS. WHITNEY. Of these true knights Charlemagne Kindred was one. Lessons, problems, questions, went down before his fierce assault. He had never enjoyed being headed off in what he chose to do; and had pledged it to himself that if ever anything did that kind office for him, it should not be West Point. "_You_ stop me?" he would say to some particularly obnoxious book. "_You_ get in my way?" and probably the hard-headed volume would then and there find itself pitched to the furthest corner of the room. But after that little expression of opinion, Magnus would pick the book up, and bone with all his might. Smith's "Conic Sections" got quite used to such short excursions, and Ketel's "French Grammar" grew old before its time. Rig's method was different. "Kin, I'm growing grey," he said plaintively one morning. "Grey as a goose." "No, but really," said Rig, laying down the book. "This thing's too hard, you know. Breaks a man all up." "You'd best stick yourself together again before two o'clock," said Magnus. "No good," said Rig, taking up another study volume from the heap. "I'll try this a while. Nobody ought to be expected to learn such stuff." "Put that book down!" Magnus thundered at him, from his own corner. "Oh, I can put it down easy enough," Rig said rather sulkily. "But I can't see what business it is of yours." "Now fold your hands, and spell zero ten times backwards," said Magnus, "and then take your Davies, and go to work. Unless you want to fess solid for the rest of your life." "Well--Say, Kin,--what a good fellow Mr. Upright is." "Mr. Upright's a cold max. Mind your business."