you lazybones!"

It seemed to Paul that he had just managed to drop into his first real
sleep of the night when he heard William say this. The unusual
experience of hearing the loud strokes of the big clock up in the
steeple above, had done much to keep him wakeful, even when it was not
his time to be on guard.

He immediately sat up, to find the other fellows yawning, and
stretching, as if they, too, had been dragged back from dreamland by
William's turning-out call.

"Oh! rats, it sure can't be five o'clock yet!" grumbled Bobolink,
showing signs of rolling over again, and taking another spell of sleep.

"Ain't it?" remarked the sentry, indignantly; "Well, you just take a
look up at that window, and you'll see the sun, all right. Besides, the
clock tried to get in the reveille, though I tell you it was mighty hard
work, with the lot of you snoring to beat the band. Tell 'em to crawl
out, Paul. We've got heaps to do this morning, all right."

"Say, is this the day we start on that long hike?" demanded Bobolink,
with a dismal groan; "oh! my, but I feel punk. Who's been kicking me
when I was asleep? I'm sore all over, and I guess you'll have to leave
me behind, Paul, or else fix up that stock wagon into a sort of
ambulance."

"Oh! slush!" exclaimed William, indignantly, "wouldn't that be a nice
cinch for you, now, to be reclining at your ease among the tents and
blankets, while the rest of us tramped and sweated along the trail? I
see you doing it, in my mind's eye."

"Jump up and stretch, Bobolink. You've only got a few kinks in your
muscles," remarked Jack, who was already working his arms like flails.

"I suppose I'll just have to, even if it kills me. Oh! what a shooting
pain in that left leg. What ails me, anyhow?" grumbled the afflicted
one.

"I know," quoth William, readily enough. "You put too much steam into
those kicks last night. Didn't I hear Ted give a yelp every time you got
near him; and there were others. Everything in moderation, my boy.
You're just paying the price now on your speed. Tone down like I do, and
you won't have such aches the next day."

By degrees Bobolink managed to get rid of his sore feeling, which may
have come, after all, from an unaccustomed bed on the floor. Despite
the blankets which he had tucked under him, at some time during the
night he possibly rolled out of his snug nest, and the hard boards left
an impression.

In a short time the gymnasium was made to look order