ll sorts of things like
that."

"Well, it would be pretty wasteful to put a general in danger that way
now, Pete. He's had plenty of chance to prove his bravery, as a rule,
and, when he's a general, and has years of experience behind him, the
idea is to use his brain. If he is in the rear, and by his eyes and the
reports he gets in all sorts of ways, can get a general view of what is
going on, he can tell just what is best to be done. Sometimes the only
way to win a battle is to sacrifice a whole brigade or a division--to
let it be cut to pieces, without a chance to save itself, in order that
the rest of the army may have time to change its position, so that the
battle can be won. That's the sort of thing the general has got to
decide, and if he's in the thick of the fighting in the old-fashioned
way, he can't possibly do that."

"I think it's going to be great sport, don't you, Jack?" asked Tom
Binns. "Will there be any real firing?"

"Yes--with smokeless powder, because they want to test some new kinds.
But they'll use blank cartridges, of course. There'll be just as much
noise as ever, but there won't be any danger, of course."

"I don't like the sound of firing much," said Tom Binns, a little
shamefacedly. "Even when I know it's perfectly safe and that there
aren't any bullets, it makes me awfully nervous."

"This will be good practice for you, then, Tom, because it will help you
to get used to it. I hope we'll never have another war, but we want to
be ready if we ever do. 'Be prepared'--that's our Scout motto, you know,
and it means for the things that we might have to do in war, as well as
the regular peaceful things that come up every day."

"Will there be any aeroplanes?" asked Pete Stubbs. "I'm crazy to see one
of those things flying sometime, Jack. I never saw one yet, except that
time when the fellow landed here and hurt himself. And I didn't see him
in the air, but only after he made his landing. The machine was all
busted up then, too."

"I think there'll be some aeroplane scouting by the signal corps.
Several of the men in that are pretty well off, you know, and they have
their own flying machines. I guess that's one of the things they'll try
to determine in these maneuvers, the actual, practical usefulness of
aeroplanes, and whether biplanes or monoplanes are the best."

"Say, Jack, why couldn't we Boy Scouts build an aeroplane sometime? If
we learned something about them this next week, I should