y and frankly
partisan, and so separated themselves into sections differentiated by
the colours of the flags they carried and the ribbons they wore. Side
yelled defiance at side, and party bantered party. Here the blue and
white of Company "A" flaunted audaciously on the breeze beside the very
seats over which the crimson and gray of "B" were flying, and these in
their turn nodded defiance over the imaginary barrier between themselves
and "C's" black and yellow.

The band was thundering out "Sousa's High School Cadet's March," the
school officials, the judges, and reporters, and some with less purpose
were bustling about, discussing and conferring. Altogether doing nothing
much with beautiful unanimity. All was noise, hurry, gaiety, and
turbulence. In the midst of it all, with blue and white rosettes pinned
on their breasts, sat two spectators, tense and silent, while the
breakers of movement and sound struck and broke around them. It meant
too much to Hannah and "little sister" for them to laugh and shout. Bud
was with Company "A," and so the whole programme was more like a
religious ceremonial to them. The blare of the brass to them might have
been the trumpet call to battle in old Judea, and the far-thrown tones
of the megaphone the voice of a prophet proclaiming from the hill-top.

Hannah's face glowed with expectation, and "little sister" sat very
still and held her mother's hand save when amid a burst of cheers
Company "A" swept into the parade ground at a quick step, then she
sprang up, crying shrilly, "There's Bud, there's Bud, I see him," and
then settled back into her seat overcome with embarrassment. The
mother's eyes danced as soon as the sister's had singled out their dear
one from the midst of the blue-coated boys, and it was an effort for her
to keep from following her little daughter's example even to echoing her
words.

Company "A" came swinging down the field toward the judges in a manner
that called for more enthusiastic huzzas that carried even the Freshman
of other commands "off their feet." They were, indeed, a set of
fine-looking young fellows, brisk, straight, and soldierly in bearing.
Their captain was proud of them, and his very step showed it. He was
like a skilled operator pressing the key of some great mechanism, and at
his command they moved like clockwork. Seen from the side it was as if
they were all bound together by inflexible iron bars, and as the end man
moved all must move with hi