crowded about
him, begging to be allowed to examine his new and elegant "grip-sack;"
and, from that day forth, he was known as "Grip" by the entire party.

For a week longer the expedition remained at Camp Lyle, waiting for
settled weather, and preparing for its great undertaking. It was divided
into four divisions, three of which were regularly equipped
surveying-parties who were to run transit and level lines from a point
near the Colorado border to the Pacific Ocean. The fourth, or
headquarter division, was composed of the commander and his immediate
staff, together with the scientific men and their assistants.

As Glen hoped and expected, he was assigned to the second division, of
which Mr. Hobart was engineer in charge, and Mr. Brackett was assistant.
He was a little disappointed that the only position found for him in the
division was the very lowest of all in rank and pay. It was that of
tapeman, and his duties were to assist the topographer of the party in
measuring distances to, or taking the bearings of, prominent objects
along the line. Neither could Glen help wishing that Binney Gibbs had
not been assigned to the same division as himself. On account of his
brilliant record for scholarship and skill with figures, Binney was made
rodman, a position that far outranked Glen's and commanded twice his
pay. Still, Glen strove hard not to feel envious of this other Brimfield
boy. He was altogether too proud of being a member of the expedition on
any terms to have room for any other feeling, and he was anxious to be
on a friendly footing with Binney, as he was with everybody else. So,
when the positions were announced, and the prize scholar was found to
hold such a fine one, Glen was the first to tender his congratulations.

Binney received them coldly, merely remarking that they could not very
well have given him any lower position, and that he should not have
accepted anything less if it had been offered.

Glen only smiled at this, and thought how fortunate it was that he did
not feel that way.

As a rodman Binney was allowed the use of a saddle-animal, and a very
small mule was assigned to him as his mount. When he went down to the
wagons to inspect his new acquisition, he thought he had never seen a
more dangerous-looking animal. It laid back its ears and bit at him when
he attempted to pat it on the nose, and manifested every other sign of
mulish antipathy towards its new master. In spite of all this, the
t